CIHM 

Microfiche 
Series 

(IMonographs) 


ICMH 

Collection  de 

microfiches 

(monographies) 


Canadian  Inatituta  for  Hiatorieal  Microraproducttona  /  Inatitut  Canadian  da  microraproductiona  hiatoriquaa 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes  /  Notes  techniques  et  bibliographlques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best  ongmal 
copy  available  (or  filming.  Features  of  this  copy  which 
may  be  bibliographically  unique,  which  may  alter  any  of 
the  Images  in  the  reproduction,  or  which  may 
significantly  change  the  usual  method  of  filming  are 
checked  below. 


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□ 

□ 

□ 

0 

□ 

□ 
□ 
□ 

□ 


Coloured  covers  / 
Couverture  de  couleur 

Covers  damaged  / 
Couverture  endommag^e 

Covers  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
Couverture  restaurfie  et/ou  pellicuWe 

.  Cover  tHIe  missing  /  Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

Coloured  maps  /  Cartes  g^ographlques  en  couleur 

Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)  / 
Encre  de  couleur  O-e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 

Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations  / 
Planches  et/ou  Illustrations  en  couleur 

Bound  with  other  material  / 
Belli  avec  d'autres  documents 

Only  edition  available  / 
Seule  idAton  dlsponible 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion  along 
Interior  margin  /  U  reliure  serr6e  peut  causer  de 
I'ombre  ou  de  la  distorslon  le  long  de  la  marge 
intirieure. 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restorations  may  appear 
within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these  have  been 
omitted  from  filming  /  Use  peut  que  certaines  pages 
blanches  ajoutSes  lors  d'une  restauration 
apparaissent  dans  le  texte.  mais.  lorsque  cela  itait 
possible,  ces  pages  n'ont  pas  *t*  fBmies. 


L'Institut  a  microfilm*  le  meilleur  exemplaire  qu'il  lul  a 
et*  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details  de  cet  exem- 
plaire qui  sont  peut-fetre  uniques  du  point  de  vue  bibli- 
ographique.  qui  peuvent  modifier  une  image  reproduite. 
ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une  modifteatlon  dans  la  rnWio- 
de  normale  de  fllmage  sont  Indiquia  cl-dessous. 

I    I  Coloured  pages  /  Pages  de  couleur 
I    I  Pages  damaged/ Pages  endommag6es 

□ Pages  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
Pages  restauries  et/ou  pellicul*es 

□ Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed  / 
Pages  d6color*es.  tachet6es  ou  piquies 

I    I  Pages  detached/ Pages  d6tach6es 
Shov^rthrough/ Transparence 

□ Quality  of  print  varies  / 
Qualit*  in^gale  de  I'impressfon 


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Includes  supplementary  material  / 
Comprend  du  materiel  supplimentslrr 

Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscuif  j  •  >  ir-  m  slips, 
tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refilmed  to  e^^ure  the  best 
possible  Image  /  Les  pages  ty  ^ment  ou 
partlellement  obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  u  errata,  une 
pelure.  etc.,  ont  6t6  filmies  k  nouveau  de  fa^on  k 
obtenlr  la  meilleure  Image  possllrfe. 

Opposing  pages  with  varying  colouration  or 
discotourattons  are  filmed  twice  to  ensure  the  best 
possible  image  /  Les  pages  s'opposant  ayant  des 
colorations  variables  ou  des  dAcoloratlons  sont 
fllmies  deux  fols  afin  d-obtenlr  la  meilleure  Image. 
possK>ie. 


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Additional  comments  / 
Commentalres  suppWmentalres: 


This  h.ni  is  filmed  it  the  reduction  r«t!o  ehteked  ^«»*' 

C*  deeuiMM  lit  mint  au  Mux  dt  rfduetten  Indtqw*  eMeitout. 


26x 


30x 


Th«  copy  filmed  h«r«  has  b««n  reproduced  thanks 
to  th«  ganarosity  el: 

National  Library  of  Canada 


Tha  imagaa  appearing  here  are  the  best  quality 
possible  considering  the  condition  end  legibility 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  Icaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  spacH icationa. 


Original  copies  in  printed  paper  covers  era  filmed 
beginning  with  the  front  cover  and  ending  on 
the  last  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  copies  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  Impraa- 
sion,  and  snding  on  the  laat  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrsted  impression. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  eech  microfiche 
shell  contain  tha  symbol        (meaning  "CON« 
TINUEO").  or  the  symbol  ▼  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 

Maps,  plates,  charts,  etc.,  mey  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  ere  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  aa  many  frames  as 
required.  Tha  following  diagrama  illuatrata  the 
method: 


1 


2 


L'«x«mpi«ir«  Ulmi  fut  rtproduit  gric*  A  la 
gAn«ro*it*  d«: 

BIbllotMqiw  MtfoMie  du  Carada 


Lm  image*  suivantas  ont  ata  reproduitas  avac  la 
plua  grand  soin.  compta  tanu  da  la  condition  at 
da  la  nanat*  da  I'axampiaira  film*,  at  an 
eonfomiM  avac  laa  eonditiona  du  eontrat  da 
fiimaga. 

Laa  axamplairaa  originaux  dont  la  eouvartura  an 
papiar  aat  Imprim^a  sent  filmas  an  commenpant 
par  la  pramiar  plat  at  an  tarminant  soit  par  la 
darniira  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'impraaaion  ou  d'iiluatration.  soit  par  la  second 
plat,  aalen  la  caa.  Teua  laa  autraa  axamplairas 
originaux  sont  filmas  an  commandant  par  la 
pramiira  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'imprassion  ou  d'iiluatration  at  an  tarminant  par 
la  darniAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  talla 
amprainta. 

Un  das  aymbolaa  suivanta  apparaftra  sur  la 
darniAra  imaga  da  chaqua  mieroficha.  salon  la 
cas:  la  symbols        signifio  "A  SUIVRE".  la 
symbola  ▼  signifia  "FIN". 

Las  cartaa,  planchas.  tableaux,  etc..  peuvant  itra 
filmte  a  daa  taux  da  raduction  diffarents. 
Loraqua  la  document  aat  trop  grand  pour  ttra 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clicha.  11  est  filma  a  partir 
da  Tangle  suparieur  gauche,  da  gauche  A  droite. 
et  de  haut  an  bas,  en  prenant  la  nombre 
d'imagaa  n^casaaira.  Laa  diagrammas  suivants 
illuatrant  ia  mttliode. 


1 


2 


3 


3 


6 


MICROCOPY  RESOWTION  THT  CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


^    APPLIED  IM^GE  Inc 

1653  East  Main  Street 
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CRUSADERS  OP  NEW  FRANCE 


TEXTBOOK  EDITION 


THE  CHRONICLES 
OF  AMERICA  SERIES 
ALLEN  JOHNSON 
EDITOR 

GERHARD  R.  LOMER 
CBABLBS  W.  JBFPBBT8 
ASSISTANT  EDITORS 


CRUSADERS 
OF  NEW  FRANCE 

A  CHRONICLE  OF  THE 
FLEUB-D2.LI8  IN  THE  WILDERNESS 
BY  WXLUAH  BENNETT  MUNRO 


LVXET 


NEW  HAVEN:  YALE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
TORONTO:  GLASGOW,  BROOK  k  CO. 
LONDON:  HUMPHREY  MILFORO 
OXFORD  UNIVEBSITY  PRESS 


''i^i?^  264850 


Copyright,  1918,  by  YaU  Unaernty  Pnu 


To 

my  good  friend 

FATHER  HENRI  BEAUDE 
(Henri  d^Arlea) 

this  tribute  to  the  men 
of  his  race  and  faith  is 
affectionately  inscribed. 


CONTENTS 


L 

FRANCE  OP  THE  BOUBBONS 

Page  I 

n. 

A  VOYAGEUR  OP  BRITTANY 

M 

15 

HI. 

THE  FOUNDLNG  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

M 

82 

IV. 

THE  AGE  OF  LOUIS  QUATORZE 

M 

8U 

V. 

THE  IRON  GOVERNOR 

M 

79 

VI. 

LA  SALLE  AND  THE  VOYAGEUBS 

U 

100 

VII. 

THE  CHURCH  IN  NEW  FRANCE 

M 

lis 

vra. 

SEIGNEURS  OF  OLD  CANADA 

M 

188 

IX. 

THE  COUREURS.DE-BOIS 

«< 

155 

X. 

AGRICULTURE.  INDUSTRY.  AND  TRADE 

f< 

180 

XI. 

HOW  THE  PEOPLE  LIVED 

M 

MS 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

«• 

•to 

INDEX 

M 

888 

it 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


THE     RECOLLETS     WELCOME  THE 

JESUITS.  QUEBEC,  1625 

From  the  painting  by  C.  W.  Jefferys.  FrmOufitot 
NEW  FRANCE,  15S4-1690 

Map  by  W.  L.  G.  Joerg;  American  Geo- 

graphioa  Soeirt;^.  Facing  page 


CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 


CHAPTER  I 

IBANCE  OF  THE  BOUBBONB 

France,  when  she  undertook  the  creation  of  a 
Bourbon  empire  beyond  the  seas,  was  the  first 
nation  of  Europe.    Her  population  was  larger 
than  that  of  Spam,  and  three  times  that  of  Eng. 
land.    Her  army  in  the  days  of  Louis  Quatorze, 
numbering  nearly  a  half-million  in  all  ranks,  was 
larger  than  that  of  Rome  it  the  height  of  the  I 
imperial  power.   No  nation  since  the  fail  of 
Roman  supremacy  had  possessed  such  resouices 
for  conquering  and  colonizing  new  lands.  By 
the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  Spain 
had  ceased  to  be  a  dangerous  rival;  Germany  and 
Italy  were  at  the  time  little  more  than  geographi- 
cal  expressions,  while  England  was  m  the  throes 
of  the  Puritan  Revolution.  ^ 


«         CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

Nor  was  it  only  in  the  arts  of  war  that  the  hegt- 
mony  of  the  Bourbon  kingdom  stood  unquestioned. 
In  art  and  education)  in  manners  and  fashions* 
France  also  dominated  the  ideas  of  the  old  con- 
tinent, the  dictator  of  soda!  tastes  as  weD  as  the 
grim  warrior  among  the  nations.  In  the  second 
half  of  the  seventeenth  century  France  m^t 
justly  daim  to  be  both  the  heart  and  the  head  of 
:  Europe.  Small  wonder  it  was  that  the  leaders  of 
such  a  nation  should  demand  to  see  tl^  "clause  in 
Adam's  wiU"  which  bequeathed  the  New  Worid 
to  Spain  and  Portugal.  Small  wonder,  indeed, 
that  the  first  nation  of  Europe  should  insist  upon 
a  place  in  the  sun  to  which  her  people  might  go  to 
trade,  to  make  land  yield  its  increase,  and  to  widen 
the  Bourbon  sway.  If  ever  there  was  a  land  able 
and  ready  to  take  up  the  white  man's  burden, 
it  was  the  France  of  Louis  XIV. 

The  power  and  prestige  of  France  at  this  time 
may  be  traced,  in  the  main,  to  three  sources. 
First  there  were  the  physical  features,  the  com- 
pactness of  the  kingdom,  a  tertile  soil,  a  propitious 
climate,  and  a  frontage  upon  two  great  seas.  In 
an  age  when  so  much  of  a  nation's  wealth  came 
from  agriculture  these  were  factors  of  great 
importance.   Only  in  commerce  did  the  French 


FRANCE  OF  THE  BOURBONS  $ 
people  at  this  time  find  themielTet  outstripped  by 
their  neighbors.   Although  both  the  Atlantie 
and  the  Meditemmean  bath«d  flie  shoiee  U 
France,  her  people  were  being  outdistanced  on  the 
aeas  by  the  English  and  the  Dutch,  whose  com- 
merdal  companies  were  eiploitmg  the  wealth  of 
the  new  ccmtinents  both  east  and  west.   Yet  in 
France  there  was  food  enough  for  all  and  to  spare ; 
it  was  only  because  the  means  of  distributing  it 
were  so  poor  that  some  got  more  and  others  less 
than  they  required.   France  was  supporting  at 
this  time  a  popuktion  half  as  large  as  that  of 
today. 

Then  there  were  qualities  of  race  which  helped 
to  make  the  nation  great.   At  aU  periods  in  their 
history  the  French  have  shown  an  almost  inex- 
haustible stamina,  an  ability  to  bear  disasters, 
and  to  rise  from  them  quickly,  a  courage  and  per- 
sistence that  no  obstacles  seem  able  to  thwart 
How  often  in  the  course  of  the  centuries  has 
France  been  torn  apart  by  internecine  strife  or 
thrown  prostrate  by  her  enemies  only  to  asfamish 
the  world  by  a  superb  display  of  recuperative 
powers!   It  was  France  that  first  among  the  king- 
doms of  Europe  rose  from  feudal  chaos  to  QtMy  ? 
nationalism;  it  was  France  that  first  among  ' 


4  CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
continental  countries  after  the  Middle  Agm 
established  the  reign  of  law  throu^iout  a  power- 
ful realm.  Though  wan  and  tunnoOi  almost 
without  end  were  a  heavy  drain  upon  Gallic 
vitality  for  many  generations,  France  achieved 
steady  progress  to  primacy  in  the  arts  of  peace. 
None  but  a  marvellous  people  could  have  made 
such  efforts  without  exhausUon,  yet  even  now 
in  the  twentieth  century  the  astounding  vigor 
of  this  race  has  not  ceased  to  compel  the  admira- 
tion of  mankind. 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  moreover,  France 
owed  much  of  her  national  power  to  a  highly-cen- 
tralized and  dosely-knit  schone  of  government. 
^  Under  Richelieu  the  strength  of  the  monarchy 
had  been  enhanced  and  thd  power  of  the  nobility 
broken.  Vfh&n  he  began  his  personal  rule,  Louis 
'>  XIV  continued  his  woric  of  consolidation  and  in 
^  •  the  years  <rf  his  long  reign  managed  to  centralize 
in  the  throne  every  vestige  of  political  power. 
The  famous  saying  attributed  to  him,  "The 
State!  I  am  the  State!'*  embodied  no  idle  boast. 
Nowhere  was  there  a  trace  of  representative 
government,  nowhere  a  constitutional  check  on 
the  royal  power.  There  were  councils  of  different 
sorts  and  with  varied  jurisdictions,  but  men  sat  in 


FRANCE  OF  THE  B0UBB0N8  $ 
them  at  the  Kiog'g  bdieit  and  were  removable  at 
will.  There  were  parUwmU,  too^  bat  to 
mention  them  without  eiphmation  wouU  be  only 
to  let  the  term  mislead,  for  they  were  not  rqpre- 
aentative  bodies  w  parliaments  in  the  ordinaiy 
■ense;  their  powers  were  chiefly  judicial  and  they 
w«e  no  barrier  m  the  way  of  the  steady  march 
to  absolutism.    The  political  structure  of  the 
Bourbon  reahn  in  the  age  of  Louis  XIV  and 
afterwards  was  simple;  all  the  lines  of  control  ran 
upwards  and  to  a  common  center.   And  all  this 
made  for  unity  and  autocratic  efficiency  in  finance, 
in  war,  and  in  foreign  a£Pairs. 

Another  feature  which  fitted  the  nation  for  an 
imperial  destiny  was  the  possession  of  a  united 
and  militant  church.  With  heresy  the  GaUican 
branch  of  the  Catholic  Church  had  fought  a  fiooe 
struggle,  but,  before  the  seventeenth  century  was 
far  advanced,  the  battle  had  been  won.  There 
were  heretics  in  France  even  after  Richelieu's  time, 
but  they  were  no  longer  a  source  of  serious  discwd. 
The  Church,  now  victorious  over  its  foes,  became 
mihtant,  ready  to  carry  its  missionary  efforts  to 
other  lands  —  ready,  in  fact,  for  a  new  crusade. 

These  four  factors,  rare  geographical  advantages,  ^ 
racial  quaUties  of  a  high  order,  a  strwigiy  central- 


6         CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

ized  scheme  of  goverament,  and  a  militant  church, 
contributed  largely  to  the  prestige  which  France 
possessed  among  European  nations  in  the  seven- 
teenth century.    With  all  these  advantages  she 
should  have  been  the  first  and  not  the  last  to  get 
a  firm  footing  in  the  new  continents.  Historians 
have  recorded  their  reasons  why  France  did  not 
seriously  enter  the  field  of  American  ookmization 
as  early  as  England,  but  these  reasons  do  not  im- 
press one  as  being  good.  Foreign  wan  and  internal 
religious  strife  are  commonly  given  and  accepted 
as  the  true  cause  of  Frendi  tardiness  in  following 
up  the  pioneer  work  olJacques  Cartier  and  others. 
Yet  not  all  th  )  energy  of  nearly  twenty  mffljon 
people  was  bdng  absorbed  in  tltese  troubfes. 
There  were  men  and  m<mey  to  qpare,  had  the  im- 
portance of  the  woric  overseas  only  been  adequatdy 
realised. 

The  main  reason  why  France  was  last  in  the 
field  is  to  be  for  id  in  the  faihue  of  her  kings  and 
ministm  to  realise  until  late  in  the  day  how  vast 
the  possibilities  at  the  new  continent  really  were. 
hk  a  highly  centralized  and  not  over-populated 
state  the  authorities  must  lead  the  way  in  colonial 
enterprises;  the  people  will  not  of  their  own 
initiative  seek  out  and  follow  opportunities  to 


FRANCE  OF  TH£  BOUBBQNS  1 
cx>Ionize  dktont  kadi.  And  in  Vnact  Ihm  «»- 
tlioritiei  were  not  rmdy  to  lead.  fiuUy,  who 
■toed  nifweme  among  the  royal  advl^ni  the 
doabg  yean  d  the  afarteenth  century,  was  oppoaed 
^  eoloiual  venturea  under  all  dreumatanoai. 
"Payoff  poaaeaakma,"  he  dedaied,  "are  not 
iuited  to  the  temperament  or  to  the  genius  of 
Frenchmen,  who  to  my  great  regret  have  neither 
the  peneYeraaee  nor  the  foresight  needed  for  such 
enterpriaea,  but  who  ordmarily  apply  their  vigor, 
minda,  and  courage  to  things  which  are  immedi- 
ate at  hand  and  constantly  before  their  eyes." 
Cokmiea  beyond  the  seas,  he  believed,  ''would 
never  be  anything  but  a  great  expense."  That, 
mdeed,  was  the  orthodox  notion  in  cirelrs  surround- 
ing the  seat  of  royal  power,  and  it  was  *  difficult 
notion  to  dislodge. 

Never  until  the  time  of  Richelieu  was  any 
intimation  of  the  great  colonial  opportunity, 
now  quickly  slipping  by,  allowed  to  reach  the 
throne,  and  then  it  was  only  an  inkling,  makmg 
but  a  slight  impression  and  soon  virtually  for- 
gotten. Richelieu's  great  Company  of  1627  made 
a  brave  start,  but  it  did  not  hold  the  Cardiaal'a 
interest  very  long.  Mazarin,  who  succeeded  Bicb^- 
lieu,  took  no  interest  in  the  New  Worid;  Utt 


8  CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

tortuous  problems  of  European  diplomacy  ap- 
pealed far  more  strongly  to  his  Italian  imagination 
than  did  the  vision  of  a  New  France  beyond  the 
seas.  It  was  Lot  until  Colbert  took  the  reins 
that  official  France  really  displayed  an  interest 
in  the  work  of  colonization  at  all  proportionate  to 
the  nation's  power  and  resource. 

Colbert  was  admirably  fitted  to  become  the 
herald  of  a  greater  France.   Coming  from  the 
ranks  of  the  hourgeoiaU,  he  was  a  man  of  affairs, 
not  a  cleric  or  a  courtier  as  his  predecessors  in 
office  had  been.   He  had  a  clear  conception  of 
what  he  wanted  and  unwearied  industry  in  moving 
towards  the  desired  end.   His  devotion  to  the 
Kmg  was  beyond  question;  he  had  native  ability, 
patience,  sound  ideas,  and  a  firm  will.    Given  a 
fair  opportunity,  he  would  have  accomplished  far 
more  for  the  glory  of  the  fleur-de-lis  in  the  region 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Great  Lakes  of 
America.    But  a  thousand  problems  of  home 
administration  were  crowded  upon  him,  problems 
of  finance,  of  industry,  of  ecclesiastical  adjustment, 
and  of  social  reconstruction.    In  the  first  few 
years  of  his  term  as  minister  he  could  still  find  a 
little  time  and  thought  for  Canada,  and  during  this 
short  period  he  personally  conducted  the  corre- 


FRANCE  OF  THE  BOmBONS  9 
apondoice  with  the  colomal  i^dals;  but  after  1669 
aU  this  was  turned  over  to  the  Minister  of  Marine, 
and  Colbert  himself  figured  directly  in  the  affairs 
of  the  colony  no  more.  The  great  minister  of 
Louis  XIV  is  remembered  far  more  for  his  work 
at  home  than  for  his  services  to  New  France. 

As  for  the  French  monarchs  of  the  seventeenth 
caitury,  Louis  XIV  was  the  first  and  only  one  to 
take  an  active  and  enduring  interest  in  the  great 
crusade  to  the  northern  wilderness.    He  began  his 
personal  reign  about  1660  with  a  genuine  display 
of  zeal  for  the  establishment  of  a  colony  which 
would  by  its  rapid  growth  and  prosperity  soon 
crowd  the  English  off  the  new  continent.   In  the 
selection  of  officials  to  carry  out  his  policy,  his 
judgment,  when  not  subjected  to  sinister  pressure, 
was  excellent,  as  shown  in  his  choice  of  Frontawc. 
Nor  did  the  Kmg»s  interest  in  the  colony  dackm 
m  the  face  of  discouragement.   It  kept  on  to  the 
end  of  his  reign,  although  diminishing  somewhat 
towards  the  close.    It  could  not  weU  do  othmise 
than  weaken  during  the  European  disasters  which 
marked  his  later  years.  By  the  death  <rf  Louis  XIV 
m  1715  the  colony  lost  its  most  unwavering  friend. 

The  shrewdest  of  French  histcnians.  De  Tocque- 
viUe,  has  somewhere  remarked  that  "the  physi- 


10        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

ognomy  of  a  govenunent  may  be  best  judged  in 
the  colonies.  .  .  .  When  I  wish  to  study  the 
spirit  and  faults  of  the  administration  of  Louis 
XIV,"  he  writes,  **1  must  go  to  Canada,  for  its 
deformity  is  there  seen  as  through  a  microscope.** 
That  is  entirely  true.  The  history  of  New  France 
in  its  picturesque  alternation  of  sunshine  and 
shadow,  of  victory  and  defeat,  of  pageant  and 
tragedy,  is  a  chronicle  that  is  Gallic  to  the  core. 
In  the  early  annals  of  the  northland  one  can  find 
silhouetted  in  sharp  relid  examples  of  all  that  was 
best  and  all  that  was  worst  in  the  life  of  Old  France. 
The  pditical  framewwk  of  the  colony,  with  its 
strkst  centralization,  the  paternal  regulation  of 
industry  and  conunerce,  the  flood  of  missionary 
«eal  which  poured  in  upon  it,  the  heroism  and 
courage  of  its  priests  and  voyageurs,  the  venality 
of  its  administrative  officials,  the  anachronism  of  a 
feudal  land-tenure,  the  bizarre  externals  of  its 
social  life,  the  versatility  of  its  people — all  these 
reflected  the  paternity  o*  New  France. 

The  most  striking  weakness  of  French  colonial 
policy  in  the  seventeenth  century  was  its  failure 
to  realize  how  vastly  different  was  the  environ- 
ment of  North  America  from  that  of  Central 
Europe.   Institutions  were  tran^lanted  bodily. 


PRANCE  OP  THE  BOURBONS  u 

and  then  amazement  was  expressed  at  Versailles 
because  they  did  not  seem  to  thrive  in  tiie  new 
soil.   Detailed  instructions  to  oflScials  in  New 
Prance  were  framed  by  men  who  had  not  the 
slightest  grasp  of  the  colony's  needs  or  problems. 
One  busybody  wrote  to  the  colonial  Intendant 
that  a  bake-oven  should  be  established  in  every 
seigneury  and  that  the  ^  ahitants  should  be  ordered 
to  bring  their  dough  there  to  be  made  mto  bread. 
The  Intendant  had  to  remmd  him  that,  in  the 
long  cold  winters  of  the  St.  Lawrence  valley,  the 
dough  would  be  frozen  stiflf  if  the  habitants,  with 
their  dwellings  so  widely  scattered,  were  required 
to  do  anything  of  the  kind.   Another  martinet 
gravely  informed  the  colonial  authorities  that,  as 
a  protection  against  Indian  attacks  "^11  the  se^- 
euries  should  be  palisaded."  And  some  <d  the 
seigneurial  estates  were  ejght  or  t^  mifes  tquan! 
The  dogmatic  way  in  which  the  col<aiiaI  oiBdali 
were  told  to  do  this  and  that,  to  encourage  one 
thing  and  to  discourage  another,  all  by  wapman 
who  di^layed  an  astounding  jgniHranoe  of  New 
World  conditions,  must  have  been  a  seme  trial 
to  the  patience  erf  those  haid-working  officials 
who  were  nev»  without  great  practical  difficulties 
immediately  bef<»e  their  eyes. 


12        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

Not  enough  heed  was  paid,  moreover,  to  the 
advice  of  men  who  were  on  the  spot.   It  is  true 
that  the  reoommcaidations  s^t  home  to  France 
by  the  Governor  and  by  the  Intendant  were  often 
contradictory,  but  even  where  the  two  officialn 
were  agreed  there  was  no  certainty  that  their 
counsel  would  be  taken.   With  greater  freedom 
and  discretion  the  colomal  govermnent  could  have 
accomplished  much  more  in  the  way  of  developing 
trade  and  industry;  but  for  every  step  the  acquies- 
cence of  the  home  authorities  had  first  to  be  secured. 
To  d>tain  this  consent  always  entailed  a  great  loss 
of  time,  and  when  the  approval  arrived  the 
opportunity  too  often  had  passed.   From  Novem- 
ber until  May  there  was  absolutely  no  communi- 
cation between  Quebec  and  Paris  save  that  in  a 
great  emergency,  if  France  and  England  happened 
to  be  at  peace,  a  dispatch  might  be  sent  by  dint 
of  great  hardship  to  Boston  with  a  precarious 
chance  that  it  would  get  across  to  the  French 
ambassador  in  London.    Ordinarily  the  officials 
sent  their  requests  for  instructions  by  the  home- 
going  vessels  from  Quebec  in  the  autumn  and 
received  their  answers  by  the  ships  which  came  in 
the  following  spring.  If  any  plans  were  formuUited 
after  the  last  ship  sailed  in  October,  it  ordinarily 


FRANCE  OF  THE  BOUBBONS  is 
took  eighteoi  months  before  the  royal  approval 
could  be  had  for  putting  them  into  cflfect.  The 
routine  machinery  of  paternalism  thus  ran  with 
exasperating  slowness. 

^  There  was,  however,  one  mitigating  feature  in  the 
situation.   The  hand  of  home  authority  was  rigid 
and  its  beckonings  were  precise;  but  as  a  practical 
matter  it  could  be,  and  sometimes  was,  disregarded 
altogether.   Not  that  the  colonial  officials  ever 
de6ed  the  King  or  his  ministers,  or  ever  failed  to 
profess  their  intent  to  follow  the  royal  instructions 
loyally  and  to  the  letter.    They  had  a  much  safer 
plan.     When  the  provisions  of  a  royal  decree 
seemed  impractical  or  unwise,  it  was  easy  enough  to 
let  them  stand  unenforced.  Such  decrees  were  duly 
registered  in  the  records  of  the  Sovereign  Council 
at  Quebec  and  were  then  promptly  pigeonholed 
so  that  no  one  outside  the  litUe  circle  of  officials  at 
the  Chateau  de  St.  Louis  ever  heard  of  them. 
In  one  case  a  new  intendant  on  coming  to  the 
colony  unearthed  a  royal  mandate  of  great  import- 
ance which  had  been  kept  from  public  knowledge 
for  twenty  years. 

Absolutism,  paternalism,  and  religious  sdidarity 
were  characteristic  of  both  France  and  her  cdonies 
m  the  great  century  of  overseas  expansion.  There 


14        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

was  no  self-go\  emment,  no  freedom  of  individual 
initiative,  and  very  little  heresy  either  at  home  or 
abroad.    The  factors  which  made  France  strong 
in  Europe,  her  unity,  her  subordination  of  all  othw 
things  to  the  military  needs  of  the  nation,  her 
fostering  of  the  sense  of  nationalism— these 
appeared  prominently  in  Canada  and  helped  to 
make  the  colony  strong  as  weD.   Historians  of 
New  France  have  been  at  pains  to  exphun  why 
the  colony  ultimately  succumbed  to  the  combined 
attacks  of  New  England  by  land  and  of  Old  Eng- 
land by  sea.   For  a  full  century  New  France  had 
as  its  next-door  neigfab<»*  a  group  of  English  cdo- 
nies  whose  combined  populations  outnumbered  her 
own  at  a  ratio  of  about  fifteen  to  one.  The  relative 
numbers  and  resources  of  the  two  areas  were 
about  the  same,  proportionately,  as  those  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada  at  the  present  day. 
The  marvd  is  not  that  French  dominion  in 
America  finally  came  to  an  end  but  that  i-  loaa 
aged  to  endure  so  long. 


CHAPTEB  n 


A  VOTAGEUB  OF  BBITTANT 

The  closing  quarter  of  the  fifteenth  century  m 
Europe  has  usually  been  regarded  by  historians  m 
marking  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages.   The  em  ol 
feudal  chaos  had  drawn  to  a  close  and  states  were 
being  welded  together  under  the  kadenlyp  ol 
strong  dynasties.   With  this  conaolidation  cnm 
the  desire  for  ezpansioii,  for  acquiriiig  new  kmds,  f/ 
and  for  opening  up  new  chaaiiels  ol  infiueooe. 
Spain,  Portugal,  and  England  wen  fint  m  the 
field  of  active  eq)]Qnition,  seaicfamg  lor  stoies  ol 
precious  metals  and  lor  new  routes  to  the  coasts 
ol  Qrmuz  and  ol  India.   In  this  quest  lor  a  dutrt 
route  to  the  hall-labulous  spires  <rf  Asia  they  had 
literally  stumUed  upon  a  new  continent  which 
th^  had  made  haste  to  exploit.   Prance,  mean- 
while, was  dissqiatmg  her  energies  on  Spanish 
and  Italian  battl^elds.   It  was  not  until  the 
peace  ol  Cambrai  in  1529  ended  the  struggle  with 

If 


16        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

Spain  that  France  gave  any  attention  to  the  wwk 
of  gaining  some  foothold  in  the  New  World.  By 
that  time  Spain  had  become  firmly  entrenched  in 
the  lands  which  border  the  Caribbean  Sea;  her 
galleons  were  already  bearing  home  their  rich 
cargoes  of  silver  bullion.  Portugal,  Engknd,  and 
even  Holland  had  akeady  turned  with  zeal  to  the 
e3q>Ioration  of  new  lands  in  the  East  and  the  West: 
French  fishermen,  it  is  true,  were  lengthening  their 
voyages  to  the  west;  every  year  now  the  rugged 
old  Norman  and  Breton  seaports  were  sending 
their  fleets  of  small  vessels  to  gather  the  harvests 
of  the  sea.  But  official  France  took  no  active 
interest  in  the  regions  toward  which  they  went. 

Five  years  after  Lhe  peace  of  Cambrai  the 
Breton  port  of  St.  Malo  became  the  starting  point 
of  the  first  French  voyageur  to  the  St.  Lawrence. 
Francis  I  had  been  persuaded  to  turn  his  thoughts 
from  gaming  and  gallantries  to  the  trading  pr'js- 
pects  of  his  kingdom,  with  the  result  that  in  1534 
Jacques  Cartier  was  able  to  set  out  on  his  ilrst 
voyage  of  discovery.  Cartier  is  described  in  the 
records  of  the  time  as  a  corsair — which  means 
that  he  had  made  a  business  of  roving  the  seas 
to  despoil  the  enemies  of  France.  St.  Malo,  his 
birthplace  and  home,  on  the  coast  (A  Brittany, 


A  VOYAGEUE  OF  BRITTANY  17 
faces  the  EiigUah  Chaimel  aomewhat  gouth  of 
Jersey,  the  nearest  of  the  Channel  Islands.  The 
town  is  set  on  high  ground  which  projects  out  into 
the  sea,  forming  an  ahnost  landlocked  harbor 
where  ships  may  ride  at  ease  during  the  most 
tumultuous  gales.  It  had  long  been  a  notable 
nurseiy  of  hardy  fishermen  and  adventurous  navi- 
gators, men  who  had  pressed  their  way  to  all  the 
coasts  of  Europe  and  beyond. 

CarUer  was  one  of  these  hardy  sailors.  His 
t&fh&a  before  him  had  been  mariners,  and  he  had 
himself  learned  the  way  of  the  great  waters  while 
yet  a  mere  youth.    Before  his  expedition  of  1534 
Jacques  Cartier  had  probably  made  a  voyage 
to  Brazil  and  had  in  all  probability  more  than 
once  visited  the  Newfoundland  fishing-banks. 
Although,  when  he  sailed  from  St.  Malo  to  become 
the  pathfinder  of  a  new  Bourbon  imperialism,  he 
was  forty-three  years  of  age  and  in  the  prime  of 
his  days,  we  know  very  little  of  his  youth  and 
early  manhood.    It  is  enough  that  he  had  attained 
the  rank  of  a  master-pilot  and  that,  from  his  skill 
in  seamanship,  he  was  considered  the  most  dq>end- 
able  man  in  all  the  kingdom  to  serve  his  august 
sovereign  in  this  important  enterprise. 
Cartier  shipped  his  crew  at  St.  Malo,  and  on  *he 


18       CRUSADEB8  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
tOth  of  April,  1534,  headed  his  two  small  ships 
Across  the  great  Atlantic.    His  company  numbered 
only  threescore  souls  in  all.    Favored  by  steady 
winds  his  vessels  made  good  progress,  and  within 
three  weeks  he  sighted  the  shores  of  Newfound- 
land where  he  put  into  one  of  the  many  small 
harbors  to  rest  and  refit  his  ships.    Then,  turning 
northward,  the  expedition  passed  through  the 
straits  of  Belle  Isle  and  into  the  Gulf  of  St.  Law- 
rence.   Coasting  along  the  northern  shore  of 
the  Gulf  for  a  short  distance,  Cartier  headed  his 
ships  due  southward,  keeping  close  to  the  western 
shore  of  the  great  island  almost  its  whole  length; 
he  then  struck  across  the  lower  Gulf  and,  mov- 
ing northward  once  more,  reached  the  Bale  des 
Chaleurs  on  the  6th  July.   Here  the  boats  were  sent 
ashore  and  the  French  were  able  to  do  a  little  trad- 
ing with  the  Indians.   About  a  week  later,  Cartier 
went  northward  once  more  and  soon  sought  shdter 
from  a  violent  gulf  storm  by  anchoring  in  Ga^,^ 
Bay.   On  the  headland  there  he  planted  a  great 
wooden  cross  with  the  anns  of  France,  the  first 
symbol  of  Bourbon  dominion  in  the  New  Land» 
and  the  same  symbol  that  successive  explorers, 
chanting  the  VexUla  Regia,  were  in  time  to  set  aloft 
from  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Gulf  of 


A  VOYAGEUR  OP  BRITTANY  19 

Mexico.  It  was  tlie  augiuy  of  the  white  suui'i 

coming. 

Crossing  next  to  the  loutherly  ahore  of  Anti- 
costi  the  voyageura  ahnort  dided  the  idand  until 
the  constant  and  advene  wmds  which  Cartier  met 
in  the  gradually  narrowing  channel  forced  him  to 
dder  indefinitely  his  hope  of  finding  a  western 
passage,  and  he  therefore  headed  his  ships  back 
to  BeUe  Isle.  It  was  now  mid-August,  and  the 
season  of  autumnal  storms  was  drawing  near. 
Cartier  had  come  to  explore,  to  search  for  a  west- 
ward route  to  tae  Indies,  to  look  for  precious 
metals,  not  to  establish  a  colony.   He  accordingly 
decided  to  set  safl  for  home  and,  with  favoring 
winds,  was  able  to  reach  St.  Malo  in  the  early  days 
of  Sq>tember. 

In  one  sense  the  voyage  of  1534  had  been  a  fail- 
ure. No  stores  of  mineral  wealth  had  been 
discovered  and  no  short  route  to  Cipango  or  Ca- 
thay. Yet  the  spirit  of  exploration  had  been 
awakened.  Cartier's  recital  of  his  voyage  had 
aroused  the  interest  of  both  the  King  and  his  people, 
so  that  the  navigator's  request  for  better  equip- 
ment to  make  another  voyage  was  readily  granted. 
On  May  19, 1535,  CarUer  once  more  set  forth  from 
St.  Malo,  this  time  with  three  vesseb  and  with 


to        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 


a  royal  patent  empowering  him  to  take  possession 
cf  new  lancb  in  his  sovmign's  name.  With  Car- 
tkr  on  this  voyage  there  were  over  one  hundred 
men,  of  whom  the  maj<»ity  were  hardened  Ma- 
louins,  veterans  of  the  sea.  How  he  found  ac- 
commodation for  all  of  them,  with  fuppliet  and 
provisions,  in  three  small  vessds  wliote  total 
burden  was  only  two  hundred  and  twenty  tons,  is 
not  least  among  the  mysteries  of  this  remarkable 
voyage.* 

The  trip  across  the  ocean  was  boisterous,  and  the 
clumsy  caraveb  had  a  hard  time  breasting  the 
waves.  The  ships  were  soon  separated  by  alter- 
nate storms  and  fog  so  that  aQ  three  did  not  meet 
at  their  appointed  rendesvous  m  the  Straits  of 
Belle  Isle  until  the  last  week  in  July.  Then 
moving  westward  along  ^e  north  shore  of  the 
Gulf,  they  passed  Anticosti,  crossed  to  the  Gasp4 
shore,  circled  back  as  far  as  the  Mingan  islands, 
and  then  resumed  a  westward  course  up  the  great 
river.   As  the  vessels  stemmed  the  current  but 

<  The  shipbuiiden'  old  measure  tor  detennining  tonnage  waa  to 
mul^ily  the  kagth  ot  a  vessel  miaas  three-quarters  of  the  beam 
by  the  beam,  then  to  multiply  the  product  by  one-half  the  beam,  then 
to  divide  this  final  product  by  94.  The  resulting  quotient  was  the 
tonnage.  On  tUs  basis  Caitier's  three  shqw  were  97  feet  length  hj 
23  feet  beam,  57  feet  length  by  17  tett  batBtSod  48  hagth  hy^ 
17  feet  beam,  respectively. 


A  VOYAGEUd  OF  BRITTANY  tl 
dowly,  H  WM  wen  into  September  when  they  cast 
•achor  beTote  the  Indum  viUage  of  Stadacona 
which  occupied  the  present  ute  of  Lower  Quebec. 

Since  it  wm  now  too  Ute  in  the  season  to  think 
ol  letuniog  at  once  to  France.  Cartier  decided 
to  spend  the  winter  at  this  point.   Two  of  the 
•hips  wtn  therefore  drawn  into  the  mouth  of  a 
brook  which  entered  the  river  just  below  the  vil- 
lage, while  the  Frenchmen  established  acquaintance 
with  the  savages  and  made  preparations  for  a  trip 
farther  up  the  river  in  the  smallest  vessel.  Using 
as  interpreters  two  young  Indians  whom  he  had 
captured  in  the  Gasp^  region  during  his  fint 
voyage  in  the  preceding  year,  Cartier  was  ahfe 
to  learn  from  the  Indians  at  Stadacona  that  there 
was  another  settlement  of  importance  at  Hoche- 
laga,  now  Montreal.    The  navigator  decided  to 
use  the  remaining  days  of  autumn  in  a  visit  to 
this  settlement,  although  the  Stadacona  Indians 
strenuously  objected,  declaring  that  there  were  aU 
manner  of  dangers  and  difficulties  in  the  way. 
With  his  smaUest  vessel  and  about  half  <rf  his  men. 
Cartier,  however,  made  his  way  up  the  river  during 
the  last  fortnight  in  September. 

Near  the  point  where  the  hugest  of  the  St 
Lawrence  rapids  bars  the  river  gateway  to  the 


22        CRLS.\DERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

west  the  Frenchman  found  Hochelaga  nestling 
between  the  mountain  and  the  shore,  in  the  midst 
of  "goodly  and  large  fields  full  of  com  such  as  the 
country  yiddeth."   The  Indian  village,  which 
consisted  of  about  fifty  houses,  was  encircled  by 
three  courses  of  palisades,  one  within  the  other. 
The  natives  received  their  visitors  with  great 
cordiality,  and  after  a  liberal  distribution  of  trink- 
ets the  French  learned  from  them  some  vague 
snatches  of  information  about  the  rivers  and  great 
hikes  which  hy  to  the  westward  "where  a  man 
might  travel  on  the  face  of  the  waters  for  many 
moons  in  the  same  direction. "    But  as  winter  was 
near  Cartier  found  it  necessary  to  hurry  back  to 
Stadacona,  where  the  remaining  members  of  his 
expedition  had  built  a  small  fort  or  habitation 
during  his  absence. 

Everything  was  made  ready  for  the  long  season 
of  cold  and  snow,  but  the  winter  came  on  with 
unusual  severity.  The  neighboring  Indians  grew 
so  hostile  that  the  French  hardly  dared  to  venture 
from  their  narrow  quarters.  Supplies  ran  low, 
and  to  make  matters  worse  the  pestilence  of  scurvy 
came  upon  the  camp.  In  Februaiy  ahnost  tbe 
entire  company  was  stricken  down  and  nearly  <nie 
quarter  of  them  had  died  before  the  emaciated 


A  VOYAGEUR  OP  BRTTTANY  99 
survivors  learned  from  the  Indians  that  the  bark 
of  a  white  sprue?  tree  boiled  in  water  would  afford 
a  cure.  Tha  iVenciinii  r  dosed  themselves  with 
the  Indian  r- medy,  using  a  whole  tree  in  less  than 
a  week,  but  Aich  n.eh  revivifying  results  that 
Cartier  hailed  the  discovery  as  a  genuine  miracle. 

When  spring  appeared,  the  remnant  of  the 
company,  now  restored  to  health  and  vigor,  gladly 
began  their  preparations  for  a  return  to  France. 
There  was  no  ardor  among  them  for  a  further 
exploration  of  this  inhospitable  land.   As  tJiere 
were  not  enough  men  to  handle  aU  three  of  the 
ships,  they  abandoned  one  of  them,  whose  timben 
were  uncovered  from  the  mudbank  in  184S,  man 
than  three  centuries  later.   Before  leaving  Stada- 
cona,  however,  Cartier  ded<ted  to  takeDomiaocma, 
the  head  of  the  village,  and  several  other  Iirfian. 
as  presents  to  the  Frendi  King.   It  was  natural 
enough  that  the  mastor^itet  aboM  wish  to  bring 
his  8overe«n  some  impressive  souyenu-  bom  the 
new  domains,  yet  this  swt  of  treachery  and 
ingratitude  was  unpardonable.   Donnarona  and 
all  these  captives  but  one  Kttle  Indian  maiden 
died  in  PWj,  and  his  people  did  not  readily 
forget  the  lesson  of  European  duplicity.  By 
July  the  eipediticm  was  bade  in  the  harbor  of  St. 


84        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

Malo,  and  Cartier  was  promptly  at  work  preparing 
for  the  King  a  journal  of  his  experiences. 

Cartier's  account  of  his  voyag*  which  has  come 
down  to  us  contains  many  interesting  details 
concerning  the  topography  and  life  of  the  new 
land.   The  Malouin  captain  was  a  good  navigator 
as  seafaring  went  in  his  day,  a  good  judge  of  dis- 
tance at  sea,  and  a  keen  observer  of  kndmarks. 
But  he  was  not  a  discriminating  chronicler  of 
those  things  which  we  would  now  wish  to  under- 
stand— for  example,  the  relationship  and  status  of 
the  various  Indian  tribes  with  which  he  came  into 
contact    All  manner  of  Indian  customs  are 
superficially  described,  particularly  those  which 
presented  to  the  French  the  aspect  of  novelty,  but 
we  are  left  altogether  uncertain  as  to  whether 
the  Indians  at  Stadacona  in  Cartier's  time  were 
of  Huron  or  Iroquois  or  Algonquin  stock.  The 
navigator  did  not  describe  with  sufficient  clearness, 
or  with  a  due  differentiation  of  the  important  from 
the  trivial,  those  things  which  ethnologists  would 
now  like  to  know. 

It  must  have  been  a  disappointment  not  to  be 
able  to  lay  before  the  King  any  promise  <rf  great 
mineral  wealth  to  be  found  in  the  new  territoiy. 
While  at  Hochehiga  Cartier  had  gleaiMxi  from  the 


A  VOYAGEUR  OF  BRITTANY  95 
savages  some  va^e  allusions  to  sources  of  silver 
and  copper  in  the  far  northwest,  but  that  was  all. 
He  had  not  '^und  a  northern  Eldorado,  nor  had 
his  quest  of  a  new  route  to  the  Indies  been  a  whit 
more  fruitful.    Cartier  had  set  out  with  this  as  his 
main  motive,  but  had  succeeded  only  in  finding 
that  there  was  no  such  route  by  way  of  the  St. 
Lawrence.    Though  the  King  was  much  interested 
in  his  recital  of  courage  and  hardships,  he  was  not 
fired  with  zeal  for  spending  good  money  in  the 
immediate  equipping  of  another  expedition  to 
these  inhospitable  shores. 

Not  for  five  years  after  his  return  in  15S6, 
therefore,  did  Cartier  again  set  out  for  the  St 
Lawrence.   This  time  his  sponsor  was  the  Sieur 
de  Roberval,  a  nobleman  of  Fkaxdy,  who  had 
acquired  an  ambition  to  colonize  a  porfkm  of  the 
new  territory  and  who  had  obtained  the  royal 
endorsement  of  his  scheme.   The  royal  patronage 
was  not  difficult  to  obtain  when  no  funds  woe 
sought.  Accordingly  in  1540  Bobenral,  who  was 
duly  appointed  viceroy  of  the  country,  enlisted 
the  assistance  <rf  Carti»  in  carrying  out  his  plans. 
It  was  arranged  that  Cartier  with  three  ships 
should  sail  from  St  Malo  in  the  spring  of  1541, 
whfle  Roberval's  part  of  the  expedition  should  set 


«6        CRUSADEES  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
forth  at  the  same  time  from  Hoofleur.  But  when 
May  arrived  Roberval  was  not  ready  and  Cartier's 
ships  set  sail  alone,  with  the  understanding  that 
Roberval  would  follow.   Cartier  in  due  course 
reached  Newfoundland,  where  for  six  weeks  he 
awaited  his  viceroy.    At  length,  his  patience 
exhausted,  he  determmed  to  push  on  alone  to 
Stadacona,  where  he  arrived  toward  the  end  of 
August.    The  ships  were  unloaded  and  two  of  the 
vessds  were  sent  back  to  France.    The  rest  of 
the  expedition  prepared  to  winter  at  Cap  Rouge,  a 
ahoTi  distance  above  the  settlement.    Once  more 
Cartier  made  a  short  trip  up  the  river  to  Hoche- 
laga,  but  with  no  important  incidents,  and  here 
the  voyageur's  journal  comes  to  an  end.    He  may 
have  written  more,  but  if  so  the  pages  have  never 
been  found.    Henceforth  the  evidence  as  to  his 
doings  is  less  extensive  and  less  reliable.  On 
his  return  he  and  his  band  seem  to  have  passed 
the  winter  at  Cap  Rouge  more  comfortably  than 
the  first  hibernation  six  years  before,  for  the 
French  had  now  learned  the  winter  hygiene  of  the 
northern  regions.   The  Indians,  however,  grew 
steadily  more  hostile  as  the  months  went  by,  and 
Cartier,  fearing  that  his  smaU  fdbwing  might 
not  fare  wdl  in  the  event  <rf  a  general  assault. 


A  VOYAGEXJB  OP  BRITTANY  27 

deemed  it  wise  to  start  for  France  when  the  river 
opened  in  the  spring  of  1542. 

Cartier  set  saU  from  Quebec  in  May.  Taking 
the  southern  route  through  the  Gulf  he  entered, 
early  in  June,  the  harbor  of  what  is  now  St.  John's! 
Newfoundland.    There,  according  to  Hakluyt. 
the  Breton  navigator  and  his  belated  viceroy, 
Roberval.  anchored  their  ships  side  by  side! 
Roberval,  who  had  been  delayed  nearly  a  year! 
was  now  on  his  way  to  jom  Cartier  at  Quebe^ 
and  had  put  into  the  Newfoundland  harbor  to 
refit  his  ships  after  a  stormy  voyage.   What  passed 
betweer  the  two  on  the  occasion  of  this  meeting 
will  never  be  known  with  catainty.   We  have 
only  the  brief  stotement  that  after  a  spirited  inter- 
view Cartier  was  ordered  by  his  chief  to  turn  his 
ships  about  and  accompany  the  <»pedition  bad^ 
toQuebec.   Instead  of  doing  so, he  q>iead  his  sails 
durmg  the  n|gfat  and  s^ped  homeward  to  St 
mio,  leaving  the  viceroy  to  his  own  resources. 
There  are  dfficulties  in  the  way  of  accepting 
this  stoiy.  however,  although  it  is  not  absolutely 
iiWHisistent  with  the  official  records,  as  some  hiter 
historians  seem  to  have  assumed. ' 

«^tiii  WiiMor.  Naruaim  and  CriliMl  Hiitorg  if  Ammim,  vd. 


IT, 


28        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

At  any  rate  it  was  in  no  pleasant  humor  that 
Roberval  now  proceeded  to  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
up  to  Cap  Bouge,  where  he  took  possession  of 
Cartier's  post,  sowed  some  grain  and  vegetables, 
and  endeavored  to  prepare  for  the  winter.  His 
company  of  followers,  having  been  recruited  from 
the  jails  of  France,  proved  as  unruly  as  might 
have  been  expected.   Discipline  and  order  could 
only  be  maintained  by  the  exercise  of  great  sever- 
ity.  One  ci  the  malefactors  was  executed;  others 
were  given  the  lash  in  generous  measure.  The 
winter,  moreover,  proved  to  be  terribly  cold;  sup- 
plies ran  low,  and  the  scurvy  once  again  got 
beyond  control.    If  anything,  the  conditions  were 
even  worse  than  those  which  Cartier  had  to  endure 
seven  years  before.    When  spring  arrived  the 
survivors  had  no  thought  of  anything  but  a  prompt 
return  to  France.    But  Roberval  bade  most  of 
them  wait  until  with  a  small  party  he  ventured 
a  trip  to  the  territory  near  what  is  now  Three 
Rivers  and  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Maurice.  Appar- 
ently the  whole  party  made  its  way  safely  back  to 
France  before  the  autumn,  but  as  to  how  or  when 
we  have  no  record.    There  is  some  evidence  that 
Cartier  was  sent  out  with  a  relief  expedition  in 
1543,  but  lu  any  case,  both  he  and  Roberval  were 


A  VOYAGEim  OF  BRITTANY  29 

in  France  during  the  spring  of  the  next  year,  for 
they  then  appeared  there  in  court  to  settle  respec- 
tive accounts  of  expenses  incurred  in  the  bwUy 
managed  enterprise. 

Of  Cartier's  later  life  little  is  known  save  that  he 
lived  at  St.  Malo  until  he  died  in  1557.  With 
the  exception  of  his  journals,  which  cover  only  a 
part  of  his  explorations,  none  of  his  writings  or 
maps  has  come  down  to  us.    That  he  prepared 
maps  is  highly  probable,  for  he  was  an  explons' 
in  the  royal  service.   But  diligent  search  on  the 
part  of  antiquarians  has  not  brought  them  to 
light.   His  portrait  in  the  town  hall  at  St.  Malo 
shows  us  a  man  of  firm  and  strong  features  with 
jaws  tight-set,  a  high  forehead,  and  penetrating 
eyes.   Unhappily  it  is  of  relatively  recent  w«k- 
manship  and  as  a  likeness  of  the  great  Maloutn 
its  trustworthiness  is  at  least  questionable.  Fear- 
less and  untiring,  however,  his  own  indisputable 
achievemaits  amply  prove  him  to  have  been. 
The  tasks  set  hdote  him  were  difficult  to  perform ; 
he  was  often  in  tight  places  and  he  came  through 
unscathed.   As  a  navigator  he  possessed  a  skill 
that  ranked  with  the  best  of  his  time.  Hiswasan 
iiitrq)id  saiter-soul.    If  his  voyages  resulted  in  no 
permanent  establishment,  that  was  not  altogether 


80  CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
Cartier's  fault.  He  was  aent  out  on  his  first  two 
voyages  as  an  expUaet,  to  find  new  trade  route  , 
or  stores  of  gold  and  silver  or  a  rich  land  to  exploit. 
On  his  third  voyage,  when  a  scheme  of  coIonizati(m 
was  in  hand,  the  failure  of  Roberval  to  do  his  part 
proved  the  undoing  of  the  entire  plan.  There  is 
no  reason  to  believe  that  f aint-heartedness  or  lack 
of  courage  had  any  place  in  Cartier's  sturdy 
frame. 

For  sixty  years  following  the  ill-starred  ventures 
of  1541-1542  no  serious  attempts  were  made  to 
gain  for  France  any  real  footing  in  the  regions  of 
the  St.  Lawrence.   This  is  not  altogether  sur- 
prising, for  there  were  troubles  in  plenty  at  home. 
Huguenots  and  Catholics  had  ranged  themselves 
in  civil  strife;  the  wars  of  the  Fronde  were  convuls- 
ing the  land,  and  it  was  not  until  the  very  end  of 
the  sixteenth  century  that  France  settled  down 
to  peace  within  her  own  borders.   Norman  and 
Breton  fishermen  continued  their  yearly  trips  to 
the  fishing-banks,  but  during  the  whole  hitter  half 
of  the  sixteenth  century  no  vessel,  so  far  as  we 
know,  ever  made  its  way  beyo  id  the  Sagnea^. 
Some  schemes  of  colonization,  without  oSdtl  ms^ 
port,  were  Uunched  during  this  interval;  but  in  all 
•iich  cases  the  expeditions  set  ^irth  to  wanner. 


A  VOYAGEUB  OP  BRITTANY  si 
lands,  to  Brazn  and  to  Florida.  In  neither  direc- 
tion, however,  did  any  marked  success  attend  these 
praiseworthy  examples  of  private  initiative. 

The  great  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence  during 
these  six  decades  remained  a  land  of  mystery. 
The  navigators  of  Europe  still  clung  to  the  vision 
of  a  westward  passage  whose  eastern  portal  must 
be  hidden  among  the  bays  or  estuaries  of  this 
silent  land,  but  none  was  bold  or  persevering 
enough  to  seek  it  to  the  end.  As  for  the  great 
continent  itself,  Europe  had  not  the  sUgJitest 
inkling  of  what  it  held  in  stoie  for  future  gcnon. 
tions  of  mankind. 


CHAPTER  m 


THE  FOUNDING  OP  NEW  FRANCE 

In  the  closing  years  of  the  sixteenth  century  the 
spirit  of  French  expansion*  which  had  remained  so 
strangely  inactive  for  nearly  three  generations, 
once  again  began  to  manifest  itself.   The  Sieup  de 
La  ^  ^che,  another  Breton  nobleman,  the  merchant 
trau^.s,  Pontgrav^  of  St.  Malo  and  Chauvin  of 
Honfleur,  came  forward  one  after  the  other  with 
plans  for  colonizing  the  unknown  land.  Unhappily 
these  plans  were  not  easily  matured  into  stem 
realitii^d.   The  ambitious  project  of  La  Roche 
came  to  grief  on  the  barren  sands  of  Sable  Island. 
The  adventurous  merchants,  for  their  part, 
obtained  a  monopoly  of  the  trade  and  for  a  few 
years  exploited  the  rich  peltry  regions  of  the  St. 
Lawrence,  but  they  made  no  serious  attempts  at 
actual  settlemoit.   Finally  they  lost  the  monop- 
oly, which  passed  in  1603  to  the  Sieur  de  Chastes. 
a  royal  favorite  and  commandant  at  Dieppe. 

ai 


THE  FOUNDING  OP  NEW  FRANCE  ^sj, 
It  is  at  this  point  that  Samuel  Champlain  first 
becomes  associate-^  with  the  pioneer  history  of 
New  Prance.    Given  the  opportunity  to  sail  with 
an  expedition  which  De  Chastes  sent  out  in  1603. 
Champlain  gladly  accepted  and  from  this  time  to' 
the  end  of  his  days  he  never  relaxed  his  whole- 
souled  interest  in  the  design  to  establish  a  French 
dommion   in   these   western  knds.    With  bli 
accession  to  the  ranks  of  the  voyageuM  p^- 
gress  in  the  field  of  colonization  was  f or  the  fint 
time  assured.    Champlain  encountered  many  set- 
backs during  his  initial  years  as  a  coloniier,  but  lie 
persevered  to  the  end.    When  he  had  finished  \m 
work.  France  had  obtained  a  footu«  in  the  St 
Lawrence  valley  which  was  not  shaken  for  nearly  a 
hundred  and  fifty  years. 

Champlain  was  bom  in  im  at  the  seaport  of 
Brouage,  on  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  so  that  he  was 
only  thirty-six  years  of  age  wh«i  he  set  out  on  his 
first  voyage  to  America.   His  forbears  belonged 
to  the  lesser  gentry  of  Samtonge.  and  from  them 
hemhentedarovingstrain.   Long  before  reaching 
middle  manhood  he  had  learned  to  face  dang^^ 
both  as  a  soldier  in  the  wars  of  the  league  and  as 
a  sailor  to  the  Spanish  Main.   With  a  love  of 
adventure  he  combined  rare  powers  of  descripUon. 


84        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

so  much  so  that  the  narrative  of  his  early  voyages 
to  this  region  had  attracted  the  King's  attentioo 
and  had  won  for  him  the  title  of  royal  geographer. 
His  ideas  were  bold  and  clear;  he  had  an  inflexible 
will  and  great  patience  in  battling  with  discourage- 
ments. Possessing  these  qualities,  Champlain  was 
in  every  way  fitted  to  become  the  founder  ci  New 
France. 

The  expedition  of  IdOS  proceeded  to  the  St. 
Lawrence,  where  some  oi  the  party  landed  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Saguenay  to  trade  with  the  Indians. 
The  remainder,  including  Champlain,  made  their 
way  up  the  river  to  the  Indian  village  at  Hoche- 
laga,  which  they  now  found  in  ruins,  savage  war- 
fare having  turned  the  place  into  a  solitude. 
Champlain  busied  himsdf  with  some  study  of  the 
country's  resources  and  the  customs  of  the  abo- 
rigmes;  but  on  the  whole  the  prospects  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  valley  did  not  move  the  explorers  to 
enthusiasm.  Descending  the  great  hver  again, 
they  rejoined  their  comrades  at  the  Saguenay,  and, 
taking  their  cargoes  of  furs  aboard,  the  whole 
party  sailed  back  to  France  in  the  autumn.  There 
they  fo. ' d  that  De  Chastes,  the  sponsor  for  their 
enterprise,  had  died  during  their  absence. 

The  death  of  De  Chastes  upset  matters  badiiy* 


THE  FOUNDING  OF  NEW  FBANCB  9$ 
for  with  it  the  trade  mooopofy  had  hpted.  But 
things  were  promptly  tet  i%ht  again  by  a  royal 
act  which  granted  the  aoBopdy  anew.  This 

time  ft  went  to  the  W  de  Mairts,  a  prominent 
Huguenot  nobleman,  then  gmmmor  of  Pons,  with 
wlwm  ChampUun  was  «b  friendly  terms.  To 
quiet  the  cUunors  <tf  rivri  traders,  however,  it  was 
stipulated  that  MoBts  should  organize^  a  com[)any 
and  should  be  bound  to  take  into  his  enterprise' 
any  who  might  wish  to  associate  themselves  with 
him.  The  company,  in  re;  for  its  trading 
monopoly,  was  to  transport  to  the  new  domam 
at  least  one  hundred  settlers  each  year. 

Little  difficulty  was  encountered  in  organizing 
the  company,  since  various  merchants  of  St.  Malo, 
Honfleur,  Rouen,  and  Rochelle  were  eager  to  take 
shares.  Preparations  for  sending  out  an  expedi- 
tion on  a  much  larger  scale  than  <m  any  premis 
occasion  were  soon  under  way,  and  in  1604  two 
well-equipped  vessels  set  forth.  One  oi  them  went 
to  the  old  trading-post  at  the  Saguenay;  the  other 
went  southward  to  the  regions  of  Acadia.  On 
board  the  Iatt»  w&e  De  Monts  h^sdf,  Cham- 
plain  as  chief  geograi^ier.  and  a  young  adventurer 
from  Uie  ranks  of  the  nobUMe,  Bimcourt  dePdu- 
tnncourt   The  perscmnd  of  this  e]q>edftacin  was 


S6        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

excellent:  it  contained  no  convicts;  most  of  ita 
members  were  artisans  and  sturdy  yeomen. 
Rounding  the  tip  of  the  Nova  Scotian  peninsula, 
these  vessels  came  to  anchor  in  the  haven  of  Port 
Royal,  now  Annapolis.  Not  satisfied  with  the 
prospects  there,  however,  they  coasted  around  the 
Bay  of  Fundy,  and  finally  reached  the  island  in 
Passamaquoddy  Bay  which  they  named  St.  Croix. 
Here  on  June  25,  1604,  the  party  decided  to  found 
their  settlement.  Work  on  the  buildings  was  at 
once  commenced,  and  soon  the  little  colony  was 
safely  housed.  In  the  autumn  Poutrincourt  was 
dispatched  with  one  vessd  and  a  orew  back  to 
France,  while  ChampUun  and  the  rest  pr^tared 
to  spmd  ib^  winter  In  their  new  ishnd  home. 

The  choice  of  St.  Crdx  as  a  location  proved 
singularly  unfortunate;  the  winter  was  long  and 
severe,  and  the  pr^arations  that  had  been  made 
were  soon  found  to  be  inadequate.  Once  more 
there  w^  sufferings  such  as  Cartier  and  his  men 
had  undergone  during  the  terrible  winter  of  1534- 
15S5  at  Quebec.  There  were  no  brooks  or  springs 
close  at  hand,  and  no  fresh  water  except  such  as 
could  be  had  by  melting  snow.  The  storehouse 
had  no  cellar,  and  in  consequence  the  vegetables 
f  A'oze,  so  that  the  company  was  reduced  to  salted 


THE  FOUNDING  OF  NEW  FRANCE  S7 

meat  as  the  chief  gta{4e  of  diet  Scurvy  ravaged 
the  camp,  and  befcwe  the  mows  melted  nearly 
two-fifths  of  the  party  had  died.  Not  untilJune, 
moreover,  did  a  vessd  arrive  from  France  with 
fresh  stores  and  more  colonists. 

The  experience  of  this  first  winter  must  have 
indeed  "produced   discontent."  as  Champlain 
rather  mildly  expressed  it,  but  it  did  not  impel  De 
Monts  to  abandon  his  plans.    St.  Croix,  however, 
was  given  up  and,  after  a  futile  search  for  a  better 
location  on  the  New  England  coast,  the  colony 
moved  across  the  bay  to  Port  Royal,  where  the 
buildings  were  reconstructed.    In  the  autumn 
De  Monts  went  back  to  France,  leaving  ChampUwi, 
Pontgrave,  and  forty-three  others  to  sp^d  the 
winter  of  1605-1606  in  Acadia.   During  this 
hibernation  the  fates  were  far  more  kind.  The 
season  proved  milder,  the  bitter  kssons  of  the 
previous  season  had  not  gone  unlearned,  and 
scurvy  did  not  make  serious  headway.   But  when 
June  came  and  De  Monts  had  not  returned  from 
France  with  fresh  su^ilies,  there  was  genenl 
discouragement;  so  mudi  so  that  plans  for  the 
entire  abandomnait  of  the  phct  were  on  the  eve 
of  being  earned  out  when  a  huge  vessel  rounded 
the  point  on  its  way  into  the  Basm.  Aboardwere 


38        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

Poutrincourt  and  Marc  Lescarbot,  togetlier  with 
more  settlei^  and  supplies.   Lescarbot  was  a 
Parisian  lawyer  in  search  of  adyentare,  a  man 
who  combined  wit  with  wisdom,  oneolthepieasant- 
est  figures  in  the  amials  of  American  ookmization. 
He  was  destined  to  gain  &  pkuse  in  literary  history 
as  the  interesting  chronicler  of  this  little  colony's 
all-too-bri^  existence.   These  arrivals  put  new 
heart  mto  the  m&i,  and  they  set  to  work  sowing 
grain  and  ve^tables,  which  grew  m  such  abund- 
ance that  the  storehouses  wete  filled  to  their 
capacity.   Hie  ensuing  wmter  found  the  com- 
papy  with  an  ample  state  of  everything.  The 
season  of  ice  and  snow  passed  quickly,  thanks 
largely  to  Champlain's  successful  endeavor  to 
keq)  the  colonists  in  good  health  and  spirits  by 
exercise,  by  variety  in  diet,  and  by  divers  gaieties 
under  the  auspices  of  his  Ordre  de  Ban  Temps,  a 
spontaneous  social  organization  created  for  the 
purpose  of  banishing  cares  and  worries  from  the 
little  settlement.    It  seemed  as  though  the  colony 
had  been  established  to  stay. 

But  with  the  spring  of  1607  came  news  which 
quickly  put  an  end  to  all  this  optimism.  Rival 
merchants  had  been  clam(mi^  against  the  monop- 
oly of  the  De  Monts  company.   Despite  the  fact 


THE  FOUNDING  OP  NEW  FRANCE  W 
that  De  Mbnts  waa  a  Huguenot  and  thus  a  shining 
target  for  the  ahafU  <rf  bigotry,  these  protests  had 
for  three  years  faOed  to  move  the  King;  but  now 
they  had  gained  their  point,  and  the  monopoly 
had  come  to  an  end.  This  meant  that  there  would 
be  no  more  ships  with  settlers  or  supplies.  As  the 
colony  could  not  yet  hope  to  exist  on  its  own 
resources,  there  was  no  alternative  but  to  abandon 
the  site  and  return  to  France,  and  this  the  whole 
party  reluctantly  proceeded  to  do. 

On  arrival  in  France  the  affairs  of  the  company 
were  wound  up,  and  De  Monts  found  himseK  a 
heavy  loser.  He  was  not  yet  ready  to  quit  the 
game,  however,  and  Champhiin  with  the  aid  of 
Pontgrav6  was  able  to  conviiioe  him  that  a  new 
venture  in  the  St.  Lawrence  region  na^t  yield 
profits  even  without  the  protection  of  a  monopo^. 
Thus  out  of  misfortune  and  ttalm  anm  the  piaaa 
which  led  to  the  founding  ot  a  pennaaent  onlpofl 
of  empire  at  Quebec. 

In  the  spring  of  1608  Chanqdain  and  Ponlgnw* 
onceagainsetsaafortheSLLawiaioe.  Thelattor 
delayed  at  the  Sagnenay  to  trade,  while  Champlain 

pushed  on  to  the  aite  <rf  the  oM  Stadacona,  where 
atthefootofthecMTheUidthe  foundaticBia  of 

tbe  new  Qnebec  the  firat  pomanent  aettlement  of 


40        CRUSADERS  OP  NEW  FRANCE 

Europeans  in  the  territoiy  of  New  France.  On  the 
shore  bdow  the  rocky  steep  several  houses  were 
built,  and  measures  were  taken  to  defend  them 
in  case  of  an  Indian  attack.  Here  Champhun's 
party  spent  the  winter  of  1608-1609. 

With  the  experience  gained  at  St.  Croix  and 
Port  Royal  it  should  have  been  possible  to  provide 
for  all  eventualities,  yet  difficulties  in  profusion 
were  encountered  during  these  winter  months. 
First  there  was  the  unearthing  of  a  conspiracy 
against  Champlain.  Those  concerned  in  it  were 
speedily  punished,  but  the  execution  of  the  chief 
culprit  gave  to  the  new  settlement  a  rather  omin- 
ous beginning.  Then  came  a  season  of  zero 
weather,  and  the  scurvy  came  with  it.  Champ- 
Iain  had  heard  of  the  remedy  used  by  Cartier,  but 
the  tribes  which  had  been  at  Stadacona  in  Cartier's 
time  had  now  disappeared,  and  there  was  no  one 
to  point  out  the  old-time  remedy  to  the  suffering 
garrison.  So  the  scourge  went  on  unchecked. 
The  ravages  of  disease  were  so  severe  that,  whoi  a 
relief  ship  arrived  in  the  early  siunmer  of  1609,  all 
but  eight  of  Champhun's  party  had  succumbed. 

Yet  there  was  no  thought  of  abandcming  the 
settlement.  Hie  beginnings  ol  Ca::ada  made 
^BMSUBding  donacds  upon  the  fortitude  and 


THE  POUNDING  OF  NEW  FRANCE  4i 
stamina  of  these  dauntless  voyageurs,  but  their 
store  of  courage  was  far  from  the  point  of  ezhaus* 
tion.    They  were  ready  not  only  to  stoy  but  to 
explore  the  territory  inland,  to  traverse  its  rivos 
and  lakes,  to  trudge  through  its  forests  afoot 
that  they  might  find  out  for  the  King's  information 
what  resources  the  vast  land  held  in  its  sil«it 
expanses.   After  due  deh*bwition,  therefore,  it 
was  decided  that  ChampUun  and  four  others 
should  accompany  a  party  of  Huron  and  Algon- 
quin Indians  uptm  «ic  of  their  forays  into  the 

country  of  the  Iroquott.  this  being  the  «ily  way  in 
which  the  Renchmen  could  be  sure  of  then-  red- 
akin  guides.   So  the  new  allies  set  forth  to  the 
southeastward,  passing  up  the  Richelieu  River 
and,  traversmg  the  lake  which  now  bears  his 
name,  ChampUiin  and  his  Indian  friends  came 
upon  a  war  party  of  Iroquois  near  Ticonderoga 
and  a  forest  fight  ensued.    The  muskets  of  the 
French  terrified  the  enemy  tribesmen  and  they 
fled  in  disorder.    In  itself  the  incident  was  not  of 
much  account  nor  were  its  consequences  so  far- 
reaching  as  some  historians  would  have  us  believe. 
It  is  true  that  Champlain's  action  put  the  French 
for  the  moment  in  the  bad  graces  of  the  Iroquois; 
but  the  conclusion  that  this  foray  was  chie^ 


4A        CBUSADEBS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
re^nsible  for  the  hostility  of  the  great  tribes 
\j  during  the  whole  ensuing  century  is  altogether 
without  inroper  historical  foundation. 

Revenge  has  always  been  a  prominent  trait  of 
redskin  character,  but  it  could  never  of  itself  have 
determined  the  alignment  of  the  Five  Nations 
against  the  French  during  a  period  of  nearly 
eight  generations.  From  the  situation  of  their 
territories,  the  Iroquois  were  the  natural  allies 
of  the  English  and  Dutch  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  natural  foes  of  the  French  on  the  other. 
Trade  soon  became  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega  of  all 
tribal  diplomacy,  and  the  Iroquois  were  discerning 
enough  to  realize  that  their  natural  r61e  was  to 
serve  as  middlemen  between  the  western  Indians 
and  the  English.  Their  very  livelihood,  indeed, 
depended  on  their  success  in  diverting  the  flow  of 
the  fur  trade  through  the  Iroquois  territories,  for 
I  by  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  there 
j  were  no  beav^  left  in  their  own  ommtry.  Such 
a  situation  meant  that  they  must  promote  trade 
between  the  western  Indians  and  the  F^ngltab 
Albany;  but  to  promote  trade  with  the  Engl^ 
meant  f riendsUp  with  the  English,  and  frlendsh^ 
with  the  English  meant  enmity  with  the  Fr&idk, 
Heie  is  the  true      to  the  Umg  series  of  quandf 


THE  FOUNDING  OP  NEW  FRANCS  4S 
in  whidi  the  Five  Nations  and  New  Prance  engaged. 
Champlain's  KtUe  escapade  at  Ticonderoga  was 
a  mere  incident  and  the  Iroquois  would  have 
won  forgotten  it  if  their  economic  interests  had 
required  them  to  do  so.    "Trade  and  peace." 
said  an  Iroquois  chief  to  the  French  on  one  occa- 
sion, "we  take  to  be  one  thing."   He  was  right; 
they  have  been  one  thing  in  all  ages.    As  compan' 
ions,  trade  and  the  flag  have  been  inseparaUe 
in  all  lands.    The  expedition  of  1609  had,  however, 
some  results  besides  the  discomfiture  of  an  Iroquoi^ 
raiding  party.   It  disclosed  to  the  French  a  water- 
route  which  led  almost  to  the  upper  reaches  of 
the  Hudson.    The  spot  where  ChampUun  put 
the  Iroquois  to  flight  is  within  thirty  leagues 
or  Albany.   It  was  by  this  route  that  the  Reach 
and  English  came  so  often  into  waning  contact 
during  the  next  one  hundred  and  fifty  yean. 

Explorations,  the  care  of  his  little  settlement 
at  Quebec  trading  operations,  and  two  visits  to 
France  occupied  Champlain's  attrition  during 
the  next  few  years.  Down  to  this  time  no  white 
man's  foot  had  ever  trodden  the  vast  wilderness 
bey wid  the  r^ids  above  Hochdaga.  Stori«  had 
filtered  through  concerning  great  waters  far  to  the 
West  and  North,  of  hiddten  mmerals  there,  and 


44        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

of  fertile  lands.  Champlain  was  detcnnmed  to  fee 
these  thiiigs  for  himself  and  it  was  to  that  end 
that  he  made  his  two  great  trips  to  the  interior,  in 
ioiS  and  1616,  respectively. 

The  expedition  of  1613  was  not  a  journey  of 
indefinite  ^loration;  it  had  a  very  definite  end 
in  view.  A  few  years  previously  Champlain  had 
sent  into  the  villages  of  the  Algonquins  on  the 
upper  Ottawa  River  a  young  Frenchman  named 
Vignau,  in  order  that  by  living  for  a  time  among 
these  people  he  might  learn  their  language  and 
become  useful  as  an  interpreter.  In  1612  Vignau 
came  back  with  a  marvelous  story  concerning  a 
trip  which  he  had  made  with  his  Algonquin  friends 
to  the  Great  North  Sea  where  he  had  seen  the 
wreck  of  an  English  vessel.  This  striking  news 
inflamed  Champlain's  desire  to  find  out  whether 
this  was  not  the  route  for  which  both  Cartier 
and  be  himself  had  so  eagerly  searched  —  the 
western  passage  to  Cathay  and  the  Indies.  There 
is  evidence  that  the  explorer  from  the  first  doubted 
the  truth  of  Vignau's  story,  but  in  1613  he  decided 
to  make  sure  and  started  up  the  Ottawa  River, 
taking  the  young  man  with  him  to  point  the  way. 

After  a  fatiguing  journey  the  party  at  length 
reached  the  Algonquin  encampment  on  Allumette 


TBB  FOUNDING  OF  NEW  FRANCE  45^ 
Wand  in  the  upper  Ottawa,  where  hia  doubts  were 
f uUy  oonfiimed.   Vignau,  the  Algonquins  assured 
Champhun,  was  an  impostor;  he  had  never  been 
out  of  their  «ght,  had  never  seen  a  Great  North 
Sea;  the  English  shipwreck  was  a  figment  of  his 
imagination.    "Overcome  with  wrath,"  writes 
Champlain,  "I  had  him  removed  from  my  pres- 
once,  being  unable  to  bear  the  sight  of  him." 
The  party  went  no  further,  but  returned  to  Que- 
bec.  As  for  the  impostor,  the  generosity  of  his 
leader  in  the  end  allowed  him  to  go  unpunidied. 
Though  the  expedition  had  been  in  one  sense  a 
fool's  errand  and  Champlain  felt  himself  badl^ 
duped,  yet  it  was  not  without  its  usefdness,  for  it 
gave  him  an  opportunity  to  leam  much  ooncOTiing 
the  methods  of  wilderness  travel,  the  customs  of 
the  Indians  and  the  extent  to  which  th^  m^t 
be  relied  upon.    The  Algonquins  and  the  Hurons 
had  proved  their  friendship,  but  what  thqr  most 
desired,  it  now  appeared,  was  that  the  Prwich 
should  give  them  substantial  aid  in  another 
expedition  against  the  Iroquds. 

This  was  the  basis  upon  which  arrangements 
were  made  for  Onunphiin's  next  journey  to  the 
mtenor,  the  longest  and  most  daring  enterprise 
m  his  whole  career  oi  exploration.    In  1615  the 


46        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

BioiMge  navigator  with  a  small  party  onoe  again 
aioaided  the  Ottawa,  crotied  to  Li^Ee  Nipiadng 
and  thenoe  made  his  way  down  the  French  River 
to  the  Geoigian  Bay,  or  Lake  at  the  Hurons  as  it 
was  then  called.  Near  the  Aare§  ol  the  bay 
he  found  the  villages  of  the  Hurons  with  the 
Ballet  Father  Le  Caron  already  at  work  among 
the  tribesmen.  Adding  a  large  band  of  Indians 
to  his  party,  the  explorer  now  struck  southeast 
and,  by  following  the  chain  of  small  lakes  and 
rivers  which  lie  between  Matchedash  Bay  and  the 
Bay  of  Quinte,  he  eventually  reached  Lake  On- 
tario. The  territory  pleased  Champlain  greatly, 
and  he  recorded  his  enthusiastic  opinion  of  its 
fertility.  Crossing  the  head  of  Lake  Ontario  in 
their  canoes  the  party  then  headed  for  the  country 
of  the  Iroquois  south  of  Oneida  Lake,  where  lay  a 
palisaded  village  of  the  Onondagas.  This  they 
attacked,  but  after  three  hours'  fighting  were 
repulsed,  Champlain  being  wounded  in  the  knee 
by  an  Iroquois  arrow. 

The  eleven  Frenchmen  with  their  horde  of 
Indians  th&i  retreated  cautiously;  but  the  Onon- 
dagas made  no  serious  attonpt  at  fmrsoit,  and 
in  due  course  Champlain  with  his  party  rpproMfd 
Lake  Ontario  safely.   The  Fr^idmien  were  now 


THE  FOUNDING  OF  NEW  FRANCE  47 
f  to  get  back  to  Quebec  by  descending  the  St. 
Lawrence,  but  their  Indian  alhes  would  not  hear 
<rf  Uiis  deserUon.    The  whole  expedition  liierefow 
plodded  on  to  the  shores  of  the  Georgian  Bay, 
following  a  route  somewhat  north  of  the  one  by 
which  it  had  come.    There  the  Frenchmen  qwit 
a  tedious  winter.    Champlain  was  anxious  to 
make  use  of  the  time  by  exploring  the  upper  lakea, 
but  the  task  of  settling  some  wretched  feuds 
among  his  Huron  and  Algonquin  friends  took 
most  of  his  time  and  energy.    The  wmter  gmye 
hun  opportunity,  however,  to  leam  a  gmH  ded 
more  about  the  daily  life  of  the  savages,  their 
abodes,  their  customs,  their  igriculture,  their 
amusements,  and  their  folklofe.   AD  this  inlonn. 
ation  went  into  his  journals  and  would  ha^  been 
of  priceless  value  had  not  the  Jesuits  who  came 
later  proved tobesudiuiitfriiigchionidei. erf  e^^ 

When  apring  came,  Ounqdafa  fcft  the  Huron 
country  and  by  -v^  of  Lake  N,»«ng  and  'he 
Ottowa  «ce  nH«  reached  hi.  own  people  -t 
Queb«.  It  toA  hhn  forty  days  to  make  the 
}»^J»m  the  Georgian  Bay  to  the  pre«.t 
Site  of  Montreal 

Arriving  at  Quebec,  where  he  was  hailed  as 


48        CBUSADER8  OF  NEW  VSikSCE 

OM  riMB  from  tbe  deed,  Champhiiii  fomid  that 
tbin^i  m  Fnnoe  had  taken  a  new  turn.  They 
had,  in  fact,  taken  many  twkts  and  turai  during 
the  nine  yean  aince  De  Monts  had  financed  the 
first  vt)y.4gf  to  the  St.  Lawrence.  In  tli«  tlrst 
place,  De  Monts  had  lost  the  last  \  estige  o  iiw 
influence  at  court;  as  a  Huguenot  jo  could  not 
expert  to  iiave  retained  it  under  th«  stem  "egency 
which  followed  the  assassination  of  Henry  IV 
in  1610.  Then  a  half-dozen  makeshift  arrange- 
ments came  in  thf^  ensuing  years.  It  was  always 
the  same  story  faithfully  r«'peat*»d  in  its  broad 
outlines.  Some  friendly  nobleman  would  obtain 
from  the  King  appointment  viceroy 
France  and  at  the  same  time  a  trading  nioiK)pc^ 
for  a  term  of  years,  always  pfemising  to  smd  ^t 
some  settlers  in  return.  The  nKH^peiy  woaU 
then  be  sublet,  and  Champlain  would  rec 
nized  as  a  sort  of  viceroy's  deputy.  And  S 
colony  in  which  the  white  pc^uk^kn  Sl 
number  fifty  souls! 

Despite  the  small  popetatioB,  howerer,  Cham 
plain's  task  at  Qnebec  wai  <iffie^  aad  exacting. 
Wa  wpomoa  m  Fraaee  hmi  no  int^est  m  the 
pernunent  upboikiis^  of  the  colooy;  thrf  a^t  out 
very  few  Mttfers,  and  ipive  Mm  iktk  m  the  wiQr 


TBI  vommtfe  or  new  france  «• 

of  foacb.   Hie  Mm  wlio  came   o  the  St. 
lAwrenoe  etdi  mwamer  were  an  unruly .  nd  boister- 
oas  enm  whc  quarreled  with  the  Indians  and 
among  Uieiiiielves.    At  Umes.  indeed.  Champlain 
was  8or^  tempted  o  thro^v  up  the  un*  rtaking 
in  disguit    But       ,,ati       held  out  until  1627. 
whe/  fhei     ofKi.  .    u   i  France  put  the  af^airif/ 
of  thr  colon;  upo      ne     .nd  more  active  .is. 
For  a  quart.     ^      ^.       y.    -ance  had  been 
letting    old  3  sL     by  while  the 

coi  )Tue«  ind  t  her  rivals  wer«  foiging  ahewL 

^pair      d  T   iugai  were  secure  in  the  beiith. 
x.ngl   id  a.       led  firm  footholds  both  in  Virg^ 
an.  on  Mas  ichusetts  Bty.   Even  Holland  «rf « 
ng    on    ercial  company  in  the  fidd.  Im 
a  it       n  «^hich  no  far^ighted  Freofe  ^ 
could  e  Hence  Cardinal  Richdieu.  wlien 

arr        ^  Eiinister  of  Louis  Xm,  undertook  to 
s«     ha.    Vance  should  have  her  shan  of  New 
^    'd  ..  oils.   "No  realm  is  io  weQ  aituiited  m 
Pra^.  ,  "  he  declared,  "to  be  ndOt^as  of  the  seM 
r  so  ^t-  i«  nu  thingi  nee^.-  The  cardmal. 
aums     combined  fertihty  in  i^  with  such  a 
genius  lor  oiganizatioii  that  hui  plans  ^  quickly 
under  way.   Unhap|»Iy  his  talent  for  details, 
for  the  effid^t  handling  of  Httle  things,  was  not 


50        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

nearly  so  great,  and  some  of  his  anangememts 
went  sadly  awry  in  consequence. 

At  any  rate  Richelieu  in  1627  prevailed  upon 
the  King  to  abolish  the  office  of  viceroy,  to  cancel 
all  trading  privil^es,  and  to  permit  the  dgani- 
cation  of  a  great  colonizing  company,  <me  that 
might  hope  to  rival  the  English  and  Dutch  com- 
mercial organizations.  This  was  formed  under 
the  name  of  the  Company  of  New  Franee,  or  the 
Company  of  One  Hundred  Associates,  as  it  waa 
more  commonly  called  from  the  fact  that  its 
mnnb«riiq>  was  restricted  to  <me  hundred  dbaie- 
holders,  eadi  of  whom  ccmtributed  three  thCTitand 
Umt,  The  cardinal  himsdf,  the  nunuteiB  ol 
state,  noblemoi,  and  courtesans  <^  Paris,  as  wd! 
as  merchants  of  the  port  towns,  all  figured  in  the 
list  kA  stockholdm.  The  subscription  lists  con- 
tained an  imposing  array  of  names. 

The  powers  of  the  new  Company,  moreover, 
were  as  imposing  as  its  personnel.  To  it  was 
granted  a  perpetual  monopoly  of  the  fur  trade  and 
of  all  other  commerce  with  rights  of  suzerainty 
over  all  the  territories  of  New  France  and  Acadia. 
It  was  to  govern  these  lands,  levy  taxes,  establish 
courts,  appoint  officials,  and  even  bestow  titles 
of  nobility.   In  return  the  Company  undertook 


TI  3  FOUNDING  OF  NEW  FRANCE  n 
to  convey  to  the  colony  not  fc»  thm  two  bimdrad 
settlers  per  year,  and  to  provide  tlwm  wHh  anb- 
sistence  until  they  cooM  bec««ie  .«df-«ipportn?g. 
It  was  stipulated,  however,  that TOHuguenots or 
other  heretics  .4»iiI(Lbeu^ogthe  in^gmntn, 

The  Hundred  Assodatea  ottered  upon  this 
portentous  task  with  promptness  and  enthusiasm 
Early  in  1«28  a  fleet     e^ghtem  vessek  freighted 
with  equipm^t,  settlers,  and  supplies  set  sail  from 
Dieppe  for  the  St.  Uwience  to  begin  operations. 
But  the  time  of  its  arrival  was  highly  inopportune, 
for  Snaoe  was  now  at  war  with  England,  and  it 
happened  that  a  fleet  of  English  privateers  was 
already  seeldng  prey  in  the  Lower  St.  Lawrence. 
These  privateers,  commanded  by  Kirke,  inter- 
cq>ted  the  Company's  heavily-laden  caravels, 
overpowered  them,  and  carried  their  prizes  off  to 
England.    Thus  the  Company  of  the  One  Hundred 
Associates  lost  a  large  part  of  its  capital,  and  its 
shareholders  received  a  generous  dividend  of  dis. 
appointment  in  the  very  first  year  of  its  operationa. 

A  more  serious  blow,  however,  was  yet  to  ootne. 
Flushed  with  his  success  in  1628,  Kirke  came  bade 
to  the  St.  Lawrence  during  the  Dert  auniiiier  and 
proceeded  to  Quebec,  where  he  summoBed  Cktm- 
phun  and  his  little  settlme&t  to  smadv.  Aa 


i 


fit       CB03ADERS  OP  NEW  FRANCE 

the  place  was  on  the  verge  of  famine  owing  to  the 
capture  of  the  supply  ships  in  the  previous  year, 
there  was  no  alternative  but  to  comply,  and  the 
colony  passed  for  the  first  time  into  English 
hands.  Champlain  was  allowed  to  sail  for  Eng- 
land, where  he  sought  the  services  of  the  French 
ambassador  and  eamtstly  advised  that  the  ITii^g 
be  urged  to  insist  oa  the  lestoratkHi  at  Canada 
whenever  the  time  for  peace  should  come.  Negoti- 
ations for  peace  aoon  began,  but  th^  dialed 
on  tediously  until  im,  when  the  Trea^  of  St 
Germain-en-Laye  gave  bai^  New  Iraace  to  its 

With  this  turn  in  affabs  the  Con^Muiy  was  able 
to  resume  its  opotitiotis.  Champlain,  as  its  n^ae- 
aentattve,  once  more  reached  Quebec,  where  he 
received  a  gendne  wekxmie  bom  the  lew  French- 
mea  who  had  remained  thnmi^  the  years  of 
Babylonian  captivity,  and  from  the  bands  of 
ne|ghbc»ing  Indians.  With  his  hands  again  set 
to  the  arduous  tasks,  Champlain  was  able  to  make 
substantial  progress  during  the  next  two  years. 
For  a  time  the  Company  gave  him  funds  and 
equipment  besides  sending  him  some  excellent 
colonists.  Lands  were  cleared  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  settlement;  buildings  were  improved 


THE  FOUNDING  OP  NEW  FRANCE  53 
and  enlaiged;  trade  with  the  Indians  was  put  upon 
*  better  basis.  A  post  was  established  at  Three 
Riv^  and  plans  were  made  for  a  further  extension 
of  Frendi  influence  to  the  westward.  It  was  in  the 
midst  of  these  achievements  and  hopes  that 
Champlain  was  stricken  by  paralysis  and  died 
on  Christmas  Day,  1635. 

Champlain's  portrait,  attributed  to  Moncomet, 
shows  us  a  sturdy,  broad-shouldered  frame,  with 
features  in  keeping.   Unhappily  we  have  no 
assurance  that  it  is  a  faithful  likeness.   No  one, 
however,  can  deny  that  the  manner  of  Brouage^ 
with  his  extraordinary  perseverance  and  caogy, 
was  adnurably  fitted  to  be  the  pathfinder  to  a  new 
realm.   Not  often  does  one  encounter  In  tke 
annals  of  any  nation  a  man  of  greater  tcoac^ 
and  patience.   Chagrin  and  df^ppomtmcnt  hb 
had  to  meet  on  many  occasions,  but  he  was  new 
baffled  nor  moved  to  concede  defeat  Bis  per. 
severance,  however,  was  not  greater  than  his 
modesty,  for  never  in  his  writings  did  he  magnify 
his  difficulties  nor  «9adt  his  own  powers  of  over- 
CfiXAui^  them,  as  was  too  mueh  the  fiuhion  of  his 
dj.,.  As  a  writ»,  his  styfc  was  plain  and  direct, 
with  no  attempt  at  embeffishment  and  no  indica- 
tioii  thut  strong  emotioBs  ever  had  much  mfluenoe 


54        CRUSADEBS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

i^KHi  his  pen.  He  was  essentiaUy  a  man  of  action, 
and  his  narrative  is  in  the  main  a  ample  record 
of  such  a  man's  achievements.  His  character 
was  above  reproach;  no  one  ever  impugned  his 
honesty  or  his  sincere  devotion  to  the  best  interests 
of  his  superiors.  To  his  Church  he  was  loyal  in  the 
hist  degree;  and  it  was  under  his  auspices  that 
the  first  of  the  Jesuit  missionaries  came  to  begin 
the  enduring  work  which  the  Order  was  destined 
to  accomplish  in  New  France. 

On  the  death  of  Champlain  the  Company 
appointed  the  Sieur  de  Montmagny  to  be  governor 
of  the  colony.   He  was  an  ardent  sympathizer 
with  the  aims  of  the  Jesuits,  and  life  at  Quebec 
soon  became  almost  monastic  in  its  austerity. 
The  Jesuits  sent  home  each  year  their  BSloHorUt 
and,  as  these  were  widely  read,  they  created  great 
interest  in  the  spiritual  affairs  of  the  oobny.  The 
call  for  zealots  to  cany  the  cross  westward  mto 
the  wilderness  met  ready  response,  and  it  was  **nH 
a  glow  of  religious  fervor  that  the  settlement  at 
Montreal  was  brought  into  being.   A  company 
was  formed  in  France,  funds  were  obtained,  and  a 
band  oi  forty-four  colonists  was  recnuted  for 
the  crusade  into  the  wildemeas.   The  ^eur  de 
Maisonneuve,  a  gaUant  soldier  and  a  loyal  devotee 


THE  FOUNDING  OF  NEW  FRANCE  «ff 
of  the  Chuich,  was  the  actiye  kader  of  the  enter- 
prise, with  Jeanne  Mance,  an  ardent  young  reli- 
gionist of  high  motiyes  and  fine  character,  as  his 
principal  coa4jutor.  Fortune  dealt  kindly  with  the 
project,  and  Montreal  began  its  history  in  1642. 

A  few  years  kter  Montmagny  gave  up  his  post 
and  returned  to  1  ranee.    With  the  limited  re- 
sources  at  his  disposal,  he  had  served  the  colony 
weU,  and  had  left  it  stronger  and  more  prosperous 
than  when  he  came.    His  successor  was  M. 
D'Ailleboust.  who  had  been  for  some  time  in  the 
country,  and  who  was  consequently  no  stranger 
to  its  needs.   On  his  appointment  a  councfl  was 
created,  to  consist  of  the  governor  of  the  colony, 
the  bishop  or  the  superior  of  the  Jesuits,  and  tlie 
governor  of  Montreal.    Henceforth  this  bo^y  waa 
to  be  responsible  for  the  making  of  all  general 
regulations.   It  is  commonly  caUed  the  CMd  Couii- 
cil  to  distinguish  it  from  the  Soyera«B  Council 
by  which  it  was  siqjiaanted  in  IMS. 

The  opening  yean  <rf  the  new  Kdmmistnitioii 
were  marked  by  one  ol  the  greatest  ol  Imt 
tragedies,  the  destructtCHi  of  the  Huzodb.  ht 
im  a  party  (A  IroquoiB  wairion  made  thev 
way  acKMs  Lake  Ontario  and  oyeriand  to  the 
Himai  ooontiy,  where  th^  ffastroyed  one  laige 


«6        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

▼Olage.  Emboldened  by  this  snoeen,  a  ranch 
brger  body  of  the  tribeHnen  retmned  in  the  year 
feftyin«  Md  Mmplrtti  thdr  bloody  woik.  A 


Jesoit  piierti,  Trfiiiiniit  aai  Afifibeii,  n^o  wwc 
bboring  mom%  &  IteoBs,  were  taken  and 
horaed  at  the  rtafe  i^er  offering  atrocious 
tortures.  The  iwants  of  the  tribe  were  scat- 
teed:  a  few  found  shdter  on  the  islands  of  the 
Georgian  Bay,  while  others  took  refuge  with 
the  French  and  were  given  a  tract  of  land  at 
Sillery,  near  Quebec.  To  the  French  colony  the 
extirpation  of  the  Hurons  came  as  a  severe  blow. 
It  weakened  their  prestige  in  the  west,  it  cut  off 
a  lucrative  source  of  fur  supply,  and  it  involved 
I  the  loss  of  faithful  allies. 

More  ominous  still,  the  Iroquois  by  the  success 
of  their  forays  into  the  Huron  country  endangered 
the  French  settlement  at  Montreal.  Glorying 
in  their  prowess,  these  warriors  now  boasted 
that  they  would  leave  the  Frenchmen  no  peace 
but  in  their  graves.  And  they  proceeded  to  make 
good  their  threatenings.  Bands  of  confederates 
spread  themselves  about  the  region  near  Mimtieal, 
poottcuig  lynx-Iike  from  the  forest  vepan  any  who 


daacn  or 

and  laid 


li  were  attadced 
Aniililer.  Two 


TEE  FOUNDING  OP  NEW  IBANCE  57 
ventured  outade  the  immediate  boundaries  of  the 
settlement.  For  a  time  the  people  were  in  despair, 
but  the  colony  soon  gained  a  breathing  < 
not  by  its  own  efforts,  but  from  a  diveraii  ^  J 
Iroquois  enmity  to  other  quarters. 

About  1652  the  confederated  tribes  undertook 
their  famous  expedition  against  the  Eries,  whose 
country  lay  along  the  south  shore  of  the  lake 
which  bears  their  name,  and  thij  enterprise  for  the 
time  absorbed  the  bulk  of  the  Iroquois  enefgy. 
The  next  governor  of  New  France,  De  Ltamm, 
regarded  the  moment  as  opportune  for  peace 
negotiations,  on  the  hypothesis  that  the  idea  of 
waging  only  one  war  at  a  time  might  sppeml  to  the 
Five  Nations  as  sound  policy.   A  mianon  mm 
accordingly  sent  to  the  Iroqums,  headed  by  the 
Jesuit  missionary  Le  Mbyn^  and  for  a  time  ft 
seemed  as  if  airangementf  for  a  htfting  peace 
might  be  made.  But  there  waa  no  amcerity  m 
the  Iroquois  profeaniMis.   Their  real  mterest  lay 
in  peacrful  rdatMHu  wfth  tiie  Dutch  and  the 
English;  the  Freodi  w«Ee  th^  logical  tauames; 
and  when  the  Irequoit  had  finished  with  the 
Eries  their  msoknoe  quickly  dumed  itself  once 
more. 

The  nert  few  yean  therefore  found  the  colooy 


58        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

again  in  deqierate  straits.  In  its  entire  popiilatioii 
there  were  not  motte  than  five  hundied  men  capft- 
ble  of  taking  the  field,  nor  were  there  fireanns 
f or  aU  of  these.  The  Iroquois  oonf ederacy  oould 
muster  at  least  three  times  that  number;  th^  were 
now  obtaining  firearms  in  plmty  from  the  Dutch 
at  Albany;  and  they  could  concentrate  their 
whole  assault  upcm  the  French  settlement  at 
Montreal.  Had  the  Iroquois  known  the  barest 
elements  of  siege  <q)erations,  the  colony  must 
have  come  to  a  speedy  and  disastrous  end.  As 
the  outcome  proved,  however,  they  were  unwise 
enough  to  divide  their  strength  and  to  dissipate 
their  energies  in  isolated  raids,  so  that  Montreal 
came  safely  through  the  gloomy  years  of  1658 
and  1659. 

In  the  latter  of  these  years  there  arrived  from 
France  a  man  who  was  destined  to  play  a  large 
part  in  its  afiFairs  during  the  next  few  decades, 
Frangois-Xavier  d^  Laval,  who  now  came  to  take 
charge  of  ecclesiastical  affairs  in  New  France  with 
the  powers  of  a  vicar  apostolic.  IkivaFs  arrival 
did  not  mark  the  beginning  of  frictiou  betwera 
the  Church  and  the  civil  officials  in  the  colony; 
there  were  such  dissensions  already.  But  the 
doughty  churchman's  claims  and  the  governor's 


THB  FOUNDING  OP  NEW  FRANCE  59 

polioy  of  KMsting  them  soon  brought  things  to  an 
open  breach,  particularly  upon  the  question  of 
permitting  the  sale  of  liquor  to  the  Indians.  In 
1662  the  quarrel  became  bitter.    Laval  hastened 
home  to  France  where  he  placed  before  the  authori- 
ties the  list  of  ecclesiastical  grievances.  The 
governor,  a  bluff  old  soldier,  was  thereupon 
summoned  to  Paris  to  present  his  side  of  the  whole 
aff'iir.    In  the  end  a  decision  was  reached  to 
reorganize  the  whole  system  of  civH  and  com- 
mercial administration  in  the  colony.   Thus,  as 
we  shall  soon  see,  the  power  passed  away  altogether 
from  the  Company  of  One  Hundred  Associates. 


CHAPTER  IV 
ram  age  of  louis  quatobsb 

]x>i7i8  XIV,  the  gimtest  of  the  B<mrbon  monaicliSi 
had  now  taken  into  his  own  hands  the  leins  ol 
power*  N<»nina]|y  he  had  been  king  d  Fnaee 
since  1642,  when  he  was  only  five  yean  dd,  but  it 
was  not  until  1656  that  the  control  of  affairs  by 
the  regency  came  to  an  end.  Moreovw,  Colbert 
was  now  chief  minister  of  state,  so  that  colonial 
matters  were  assured  of  a  searching  and  enlightened 
inquiry.  Richelieu's  interest  in  the  progress  of 
New  France  had  not  endured  for  many  years  after 
the  founding  of  his  great  Company.  It  is  true 
that  during  the  next  fifteen  years  he  remained 
chief  minister,  but  the  great  eflfort  to  crush  the 
remaining  strongholds  of  feudalism  and  to  central- 
ize all  political  power  in  the  monarchy  left  him  no 
time  for  the  care  of  a  distant  colony.  Colbert,  on 
the  other  hand,  had  well-defined  and  far-reaching 
plans  for  the  development  of  French  industnal- 


«1 


THE  AGE  OP  LOUIS  QUATOBZE 
interests  at  home  and  ol  flench 
interests  abroad. 

As  for  the  colony,  it  made  meager  ,m.,gMvm 
under  Company  control:  few  settlers  wen  tent 
out;  and  they  were  not  provided  with  pioper 
means  of  defense  against  Indian  d^^jwdatioiii. 
Under  the  circumstances  it  did  not  take  Colbert 
long  to  see  how  remiss  the  Comptay  ci  One  Hon. 
dred  Associates  had  been,  nor  to  feach  a  dednon 
that  the  colony  should  be  at  oaoe  withdrawn  from 
lis  control.   He  accow&M^  penuaded  the  mon- 
arch to  demand  the  nurender  ol  the  Company's 
charter  and  to  Kfrnmand  the  Aaweiates  for  the 
shameleM  w«y  in  which  they  h»d  neglected  the 
trust  committed  to  thdr  ewe.   "Inatead  of 
finding,"  dedtted  theKing  in  the  edict  of  revoca- 
tion, "that  this  ccnmtry  i.  p<^ulated  as  it  ought 
to  be  aft«  ao  hing  an  occuprtion  thereof  by  our 
subjects,  we  have  ieamed  with  regret  not  only 
that  the  number  of  its  inhabitants  is  very  limited, 
but  that  emi  these  are  daily  exposed  to  the  danger 
of  being  wiped  out  by  the  Iroquois." 

In  truth,  the  company  had  little  to  show  for  its 
thirty  yean  ol  exploitation.  The  entire  popu- 
lation  of  New  France  in  1663  numbered  less  than 
twenty-five  hundred  people,  a  considefahle  pf». 


I 

at        CRUSADEBS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
portkMi  of  whom  were  tnden,  «iii«»tfl|f^ 
priests.  Tbe  area  of  cleared  land  was  astonuii. 
ingiy  small,  and  agiieiiltuie  had  made  no  progress 
worthy  ol  the  name.   There  weie  no  industries 
of  any  kind,  and  almost  nothing  but  furs  went 
home  in  the  shqM  to  France.   The  colony  de- 
pended upon  its  mother  country  even  for  its  annual 
food  supply,  and  when  the  ships  from  France  failed 
to  come  the  cobnists  were  reduced  to  severe 
privations.   A  dispirited  and  nearly  defenseless 
land,  without  solid  foundations  of  agriculture 
wr  industry,  with  an  accumulation  of  Indian 
enmit-  and  an  empty  treasury— this  was  the 
legacy  which  the  Company  now  turned  over  to 
the  Crown  in  return  for  the  viceroyal  privileges 
given  to  it  in  good  faith  more  than  three  decades 
before. 

When  the  King  revoked  the  Company's  charter, 
he  decided  upon  Colbert's  advice  to  make  New 
France  a  royal  domain  and  to  provide  it  with  a 
scheme  of  administration  modeled  broadly  npoa 
that  of  a  province  at  home.  To  this  end  a  royal 
edict,  perhaps  the  most  important  of  all  the  many 
decrees  affecting  French  colonial  iitecats  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  was  issued  in  April,  l«e8. 
While  the  provisions  of  this  edict  bear  the  stamp 


I 

TOE  A6B  OF  LOUIS  QUATORZE  66 
of  Colbert's  handiwork,  it  ia  not  unlikely  that 
the  suggestions  of  Bishop  Uval.  as  given  to  the 
minister  during  his  visit  of  the  preceding  yen, 
were  accorded  some  recognition.    At  any  rate.' 
after  reciting  he  circumstances  under  which  Uw 
King  had  been  prompted  to  take  New  France  into 
his  own  hands,  the  edict  of  1663  proceeded  to 
authorize  thv  creation  of  a  Sovereign  Coaaefl  at 
thr  chief  governing  body  of  the  oobny.  This, 
with  a  larger  mendbenhip  and  with  gmtl^ 
mcreased  powen.  was  to  leplaee  tlie  old  eottncQ 
which  the  Company  had  estabUM  to  admmifter 
aflFairs  some  yean  prwiou^. 

During  the  next  liun<?^ed  yean  thia  B9^w^ 
Council  became  and  v<: .  aiaed  the  paramount 
civil  authority  in  R«ich  .kiaerica.  At  tlie  outset 
it  consisted  of  seven  mmAm,  the  govern^  it  i 
the  bUiop  ex  ^Uno,  with  five  leadenta  of  the 
ootony  selected  jfimOy  1^  th.se  two.  Beginning 
with  the  anival  of  talon  as  Sn*  intendant  of  the 
colony  in  im,  the  oecopant  of  this  post  was  also 
giveaaseatmtheCoandl.   Befor  - long,  however. 
It  became  ai^Mirait  that  the  provi^  o-  relating  to 
the  app^tooit  oi  non-ofEcial  members  was 
uawmioblc.   The  governor  and  the  bishop  could 
not  agree  ia  their  seiecUons;  each  wanted  his  own 


1^.  o 


64        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
pwtisaiis  appamted.   The  remit  was  •  deacDo^ 
in  which  aeats  at  the  ooondMMMid  lemained 
vacant.  In  the  end  Louis  Quatone  idved  this 
problem,  as  he  solved  many  others,  by  taking  the 
power  directly  into  his  own  hands.  After  1074 
aU  appdntments  to  the  Councfl  wore  made  by 
the  King  himsell.   In  that  same  year  the  nmnber 
of  non-official  membors  was  raised  to  seven,  and  in 
1708  it  was  further  increased  to  twelve.'   At  the 
ha^t  of  its  power,  then,  the  Sovereign  Council 
of  New  France  consisted  of  the  governor,  the 
mtoidant,  the  bishop,  and  twelve  lay  councilors, 
together  with  an  attorney-general  and  a  clerk. 
These  two  last-named  oflBcials  sat  with  the  Council 
but  were  not  regular  members  of  it. 

In  the  matter  of  powers  the  Council  was  given 
by  the  edict  of  1663  jurisdiction  over  all  civil  and 
criminal  matters  under  the  laws  and  ordinances  of 
the  kingdom,  its  procedure  in  dealing  with  SMch 
matters  to  be  modeled  on  that  of  the  Parliament 
of  Paris.  It  was  to  receive  and  to  register  the 
royal  decrees,  thus  giving  them  validity  in  New 
France,  and  it  was  also  to  be  the  supreme  tribunal 
of  the  colony  with  authority  to  establish  local 
courts  subordinate  to  itself.   Thei«  was  no 


THE  AG£  OF  LOUIS  QUATOBZB  u 
Syu&m  of  powwi  in  tiie  new  frame  of  government. 
legMJathre^  cawsntive,  and  judicial  powers  were 
thrown  tc^gether  in  true  Bourbon  fashion.  Appar- 
ently it  wat  Colbert's  plan  to  make  of  the  governor 
a  distinguished  figurehead,  with  large  military 
powers  but  without  paramount  influence  in  civil 
affairs.   The  bishop  was  to  have  no  civil  juris- 
diction, and  the  intendant  was  to  be  the  director  of 
details^  The  Council,  according  to  the  edict  of 
1663,  was  to  be  the  real  pivot  of  power  in  New 
France. 

Through  the  long  years  of  storm  and  stress 
which  make  up  the  greater  part  of  the  history  ol 
the  colony,  the  Sovereign  Council  rendered  diE- 
gent  and  faithful  service.    There  were  times 
when  passions  waxed  warm,  when  bitter  words 
were  exchanged,  and  when  the  ui«ent  mtetesU 
of  the  colony  were  sacrificed  to  the  settlement  of 
personal  jealousies.   Many  dnunrtac  scenes  wwe 
enacted  around  the  long  table  at  wiiicii  the  ooamai- 
ors  sat  at  their  weekly  sessions,  for  emy  Monday 
through  the  greato*  portion  ol  the  year  the  Com- 
oil  conveDwl  at  seven  o*dodc  In  tlie  mofimig  and 
usually  sat  until  noon  or  later.  But  these  wen 
only  meteoric  flashes.   Hisliirians  have  given 
than  undue  promineace  beeanse  such  q>isodes 


«e        CRI7SADERS  OP  NEW  FRANCE 

make  racy  reading.  By  far  the  greater  portioa 
of  the  council's  meetings  were  devoted  to  the 
serious  and  patient  consideration  ol  mtkie  him- 
ness.  Matters  of  infinite  variety  came  to  it  fcr 
determination,  induding  the  regulation  ol  iiidiiili7 
and  trade,  the  currency,  the  fiziiig  of  piieti,  t&e 
interpretation  of  the  nikt  idatiiig  to  land  tmar** 
fire  prevention,  poor  le&f,  ngakl&m  of  tlie 
liquor  traffic,  the  mcouragement  ol  agrknilture— ' 
and  these  are  only  a  f ev  of  the  toi»cs  takn  at  nn- 
dom  from  its  calendar.  In  additioa  tkoe  wcfe 
thousands  of  disputes  bio^t  to  it  for  settlenwnt 
either  daectly  or  oa  iqppeal  from  the  lower  mmt». 

The  BUButes  of  ks  deUbemdoiM  dmkg  tlM  ninety- 
seven  yetts  horn  September  18,  1668,  to  April  8. 
1760,  m  BO  feww  tluBi  ifty-six  pondems  manu- 
sedpt  vc^umes. 

Though,  m  tin  e^  estabiMiing  the  Sovereign 
Council,  no  motion  was  made  of  an  intendant,  the 
decincHi  to  send  such  an  official  to  New  France 
came  my  shortly  thereafter.  In  1665  Jean  Talon 
arrived  at  Quebec  bearing  a  royal  commission 
which  gave  him  wide  powers,  infringing  to  some 
extent  on  the  authority  vested  in  the  Sovereign 
Council  two  years  previously.  The  phraseologj- 
was  similar  to  that  used  in  the  commissiotts  of  the 


THE  AGE  OF  LOUK  QUATOBZE 
provmcid  inteidaiiUBi  fWmce.  and  8o  broad  was 
the  wmib^,  indeed,  tiiftt  one  might  well  ask 
powers  could  be  left  for  exercise  by 
■fc  No  wonder  that  the  eighteenth- 
centmy  apestle  of  frenaed  finance,  John  Law, 
hmve  heonically  described  Prance  as  a  land 
"ruled  by  •  kkig  and  his  thirty  intendants,  upon 
whoie  wfll  atone  its  welfare  and  its  wants  depend. 
Along  witb  hk  commission  Talon  brought  to  the 
coloiyr  a  letter  of  instructions  from  the  minister 
whidi  i^ve  more  detailed  directions  as  to  what 
thinfihe  was  to  have  in  view  and  what  he  was  to 
avoid. 

Ib  Prance  the  office  of  intendant  had  long  been  in 
«irtence.    Its  creation  in  the  first  instance  has 
er>mmr,nly  been  attributed  to  RicheUeu,  but  ^ 
milly  antedated  the  coming  erf  the  pwt  em- 
flinal.    The  intendancy  was  not  a  -pimf^amm 
c  reation,  but  a  very  old  and.  in  its  origin,  a  humbb 
I>ost  which  grew  in  importance  with  ike  central, 
ization  of  power  in  the  Kng'.  han*.  and  wtM 
kept  step  in  its  devel<^««|  ^ 
extmcUon  of  laml  aelf^vemmcnl  hi  fit  mi 

domahis.  The  piofum  immim^  k  $mm^ 

lutmeify  France  was  d  iMitMHl^ 

fiiiaiice.aiidjii^#ftjyii 


«8        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

wm  bound  by  no  rigid  itntiitn:  bi  omwl  wlmiirncc 
to  no  local  withoiities;  he  wm  appMW  by  the 
wtm  wipBuiibli  to  fab  iii  imi^h  aim. 

Rmb  lint  to  Uwt  tbere  nwe  »  ^HB  alHidaBts 
«f  Hew  Fmam,  Ttim,  wkom  mAMm  and 
«Mq{r^  ndi  to«t^  <«Ih^  mlir  Migu  wm 

fab  mMRTt  hiBii^  w^  «d  M  flRNii  to  braif 
^  fami  to  iti  towrfnB,  wMAeht.  Be^i«e» 
^i^Bfc^MBB  fii^^tf  MBiAilef  eflHMM^  fasfd'-workk^ 
«Mifa  ^  wgfiii^qr  ^«  far  better  than  they 
Mrvtell  fbemadves,  who  gave  the  best  years  of  their 
Iww  to  ^  task  of  Mddng  New  France  a  bright 
jefpd  m  ^  Bovrbon  mwn.  The  cdonial  intend- 
«it  was  the  royal  man-of-all-work.  The  King 
spoke  and  the  intendant  forthwith  transformed  his 
wofds  into  action.  As  the  King's  great  interest 
in  New  France,  coupled  with  his  scant  knowledge 
of  its  oMiditions,  moved  him  to  speak  often,  and 
usually  in  broad  generalities,  the  iateadant's 
activity  was  prodigious  and  his  discretioB  wide. 
Ordinances  and  decrees  flew  frcMB  his  pen  like 
sparks  from  a  blacksmith's  foife.  The  duty 
devolved  upon  him  as  the  oreiseas  t^^^  «| 
Gallic  paternalism  to  "order  everything  as  seemed 
jiiit  aiid  proper/' even  when  tfais  broi^t  ^  faiBd 


THS  AGS  OF  LOUIS  lyi^WMiif?  ^ 

mto^vtiy  hoam  of  the  people,  into  their  dafly 
wwk  or  vonhip  or  amusements.  Nothing  that 
neadad  Httiqg  aright  was  too  inconsequential 
to  hwe  «  ordinance  devoted  to  it.  As  general 
reguklor  of  wioric  and  play,  of  manners  and  morals, 
of  tUiga  present  and  things  to  come,  the  intendant 
was  lie  busiest  man  in  the  colony. 

In  addition  to  the  governor,  the  council,  and  the 
intendant,  there  were  many  other  officials  on  the 
civilhst.  Both  thegovemorand  the  intendant  had 
their  deputies  at  Montreal  and  at  Three  Biven. 
There  were  judges  and  bailiffs  and  seneschals  and 
local  officers  by  the  score,  not  to  speak  ol  tboae 
whc  held  sinecures  or  received  royal  peadm. 
There  were  garrisoas  to  be  'naintimod  •!  aB  the 

fwmtier  poaU  and  churck  affieWf  to  be  fappoftod 
^^^^  smns.  Ho  mmmd  it  wm  Oiat  New 
r^mct  coM  aem  pi^  ^  owa  wi^.  £vcty 

^  wmdk  tke  Kii«  bad  to 
tfaeragral  caniieqiiOT. 
1^  eokuQT,  Moteuvei, 
<^ffil'iwicy.  There 
lor  1^  idatively  small 
their  respective 
[uately  defined, 
officials  lacked  even 


J  70        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

the  semblance  of  hannony,  nor  did  the  royal 
authorities  always  view  this  deficiency  with  regret. 
A  fair  amount  of  woridng  at  cross-purposes, 
provided  it  did  not  bring  affaiis  to  a  complete 
■tandstill,  was  regarded  as  a  necessary  system 
<rf  dtecks  and  baUmoes  in  a  colony  which  lay  thi  ee 
thousand  miles  away.   It  prevented  any  chance 
of  a  general  conspiracy  against  the  home  authori- 
ties or  any  wholesale  wrong-doing  through  col- 
luaon.   It  served  to  make  every  official  a  ready 
tale-bearer  in  all  matters  concerning  the  motives 
and  acts  of  his  colleagues,  so  that  the  King  might 
with  reasonable  certainty  count  upon  hearing 
all  the  sides  to  every  story.    That,  in  fact,  was 
wholly  in  consonance  with  Latin  traditions  of 
government,  and  it  was  characteristically  the 
French  way  of  doing  things  in  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries. 

Louis  XIV  took  a  great  personal  interest  in 
New  France  even  to  the  neglect  at  times  ol  things 
which  his  courtio-s  deemed  to  be  far  more  im- 
portant. The  governor  and  the  intendant  jdied 
hun  with  their  requests,  with  their  grievaaoea* 
and  too  often  with  their  prosy  tales  of  petty 
squabbling.  With  every  ship  th<y  sent  to  V»- 
•ailles  their  rnhnokes,  <^ten  <rf  intolerable  kngtli; 


THE  AGE  OF  LOUIS  QUATOBZE  71 

and  the  patient  monareh  read  them  an.  Marginal 
notes,  made  with  his  own  hand,  are  still  upon 
many  of  them,  and  the  student  who  plods  his  way 
through  the  musty  bundles  of  official  correspond- 
ence in  the  Arekwes  NaHonales  will  find  in  these 
marffnaH  comments  enough  to  convince  him  that 
whatever  the  failings  of  Louis  XIV  may  have 
been,  inddenoe  was  not  of  them.    Then  with  the 
next  ships  the  King  sent  back  his  budget  of  orders, 
counsel,  reprimand,  and  praise.    If  the  colony 
failed  to  thrive,  it  wa^  not  because  the  royal 
mterest  in  it  proved  insincere  or  deficient 

The  progress  of  New  France,  as  reported  in, 
these  dispatches  from  Quebec,  with  their  figures  of ' 
slow  growth  in  population,  of  poor  crops,  and  of  j 
failing  trade,  of  Indian  troubles  and  dai^ersf 
from  the  English,  of  privations  at  times  md  of 
deficits  always,  must  often  have  dampened  the  i 
royal  hopes.    The  requests  lor  subsidies  horn 
the  royal  purse  were  especially  refcaOeas.  Every 
second  dispatch  contained  pins  Uxe  nm^  or  ht 

things  which  Wife  bo«Bd  to  cost  ms^  t  Ae  King 
provided  them:  maaey  to  eaaUe  seme  one  to  dear 
his  lands,  or  to  start  im  iinhiiby ,  et  to  ^  m  Hfc 

of  espbwtion  to  the  wflib;  moB«y  to  piwide  MBie 
Pna^  to  hmikd  ctedMs,  «r  to  wptm  kstB- 


i; 


72        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

cations;  money  to  pensioii  offidab — the  call  for 
money  was  incessant  year  after  year.  In  the  face 
of  these  multifarious  demands  upon  his  exchetiuer, 
Louis  XIV  was  amadngly  generous,  but  the  mora 
he  gave,  the  more  the  eoikmy  ailud  bim  him 
Until  the  end  of  his  days,  he  never  failed  in  re- 
sponse if  the  object  seemed  worthy  of  his  siqpport 
It  was  not  until  the  Grand  Mboardi  was  gathered 
to  his  fathers  that  the  officials  of  New  Vnooe 
began  to  ply  tl^  requests  in  vam. 

So  much  tar  the  frame  of  govemmoit  in  the  col- 
ony  during  the  age  <^  Louis  XIV.  Now  as  to  the 
happeningi  during  the  decade  foUowing  leeS.  The 
new  adminktration  made  a  promising  start  under 
the  headship  of  De  M6zy,  a  fdlow  townsman  and 
friend  d  Bishop  Laval,  who  arrived  in  the  autumn 
of  106S  to  take  up  his  duties  as  governor.  In  a 
few  days  he  and  the  bishop  had  amicably  chosen 
the  five  residents  of  the  colony  who  were  to  serve 
as  councilors,  and  the  council  began  its  sessions. 
But  troubles  soon  loomed  into  view,  brought  on  in 
part  by  Laval's  desire  to  settle  up  some  old  scores 
now  that  he  had  the  power  as  a  member  of  the 
Sovereign  Council  and  was  the  dominating  influence 
in  its  deliberations.  Under  the  bishop's  inspira- 
tion the  Council  ordered  the  seizure  of  some  papen 


THE  AGE  OF  LOUIS  QUATOBZB  n 
belongii^^  to  F^ranne  Dumeni^ 
the  now  defunct  Company  of  One  Hundred  Ano- 
oatflt.  Dumflna  retorted  by  mag  a  ihnitr  of 
duigee  agwnrt  aome  of  tlie  oonndfen;  and  the 
coionitti  at  <»ice  ranged  themsdves  into  two  op- 
po«Bg  faetioiis— thoM  who  believed  the  chaiges 
and  thoM  who  did  not  The  bishop  had  become 
the  stormy  petrel  fj{  cdonial  pohtics,  and  nature 
had  in  truth  weO  fitted  him  for  just  such  a  rdle. 

Soon,  moreover,  the  relations  between  M6zy 
and  Laval  themselves  became  less  cordial.  For 
a  year  the  governor  had  proved  ready  to  give 
way  graciously  on  every  point;  but  there  was  a 
limit  to  his  amenability,  and  now  his  proud  spirit 
began  to  chafe  under  the  dictation  of  his  ecclesi- 
astical coUeague.   At  length  he  ventured  to  show 
a  mind  of  his  own;  and  then  the  breach  between 
him  and  Laval  widened  quickfy.    Three  of  the 
councillors  having  joined  the  bishop  against  him, 
M6zy  undertook  a  coup  cTftat,  dismissed  these 
councilors  from  their  posts,  and  called 
meeting  of  the  people  to  choose  their 
On  the  governor's  part  this  was  a  serioa 
error.    He  could  hardly  expect  that  a 
who  was  doing  his  best  to  emd  out  the  i 
of  representative 


74        CRVSADISS  Of  NEW  FRANCE 

wdoome  its  establishment  and  encouragement 
by  one  of  his  own  officials  in  the  New  World.  But 
did  not  live  to  obey  the  recall  which  speedily 
came  from  the  King  a.^  the  outocnne  of  this  indis- 
cretion. In  the  ipriiig  of  1665  he  wag  taken  ill  and 
died  at  Quebec.  "He  went  to  rest  amoi^  the 
p«iq>eri/'  says  Parkman,  ''and  the  priests, •erenely 
triumphant,  sang  requiems  over  his  grave.*' 

But  discord  wkhin  its  bwders  was  not  the 
ookmy's  only  trouble  during  these  years.  The 
aoourge  ol  the  Iroquois  was  again  uptm  the  land. 
During  the  years  1668  and  1664  ban^  of  l^^lliawks 
and  Cbeidas  raided  the  regions  td  the  Bididieu 
and  penetnted  to  the  settlement  at  Three  Rivers. 
These  petiUt  guerreg  were  making  things  intoler- 
able for  the  colonists,  and  the  King  was  urged  to 
send  <Hit  a  ff»ce  ci  troops  large  oiough  to  crcdi 
the  bothersome  savages  once  for  all.  This  plea 
met  with  a  ready  response,  and  in  June,  1665, 
Fhniville  de  Tracy  with  two  hundred  oflScers  and 
men  of  the  Regiment  de  Carignan-Sali^res  dis- 
embarked at  Quebec.  The  remaining  companies 
of  the  regiment,  making  a  force  almost  a  thousand 
strong,  arrived  a  little  later.  The  people  were 
now  sure  that  deliverance  was  at  hand,  and  the 
whole  colony  was  in  a  frenzy  of  joy. 


mttnuno  fern  txt  ciMatHCLII  or  Ammc*  unh*  thc 

DHIICTIM«rW.L.*.JMM.  «M1IW««II  MOMMWCM  teCXTV 


74 


wdoon  ^ 

by  one 

Mezy  < 

came  f 

cretioo 

died  a 

paupa 

laiump 
But 
colony 
scourg 
Durini 
and  O 
and  pc 
These 
able  U 
send  c 
the  be 
met  M 
Prouv 
men  < 
embar 
of  the 
strong 
now  a 

whde  colony  was  in  a  fren^  of  joy. 


THE  AGE  OF  LOUIS  QUATORZE  75 
Following  the  arrival  of  the  troops  came  CW- 
celle,  the  new  governor,  and  Jean  TaI<Mi,  wlio  WM 
to  take  the  post  of  intendant.    These  were  gala 
days  in  New  France;  the  whole  colony  had  caught 
the  spirit  of  the  new  imperialism.   The  bannera 
and  the  trumpets,  the  scarlet  cloaks  and  the 
perukes,  the  glittering  profusion  of  gold  kce  and 
feathers,  the  chinking  of  swords  and  muskets, 
transformed  Quebec  in  a  season  from  a  wilderness 
viUage  to  a  Vwsailles  in  miniature.  Buttherewas 
littfc  time  for  dress  parades  and  affairs  of  ceremony . 
Tnw^y  had  come  to  giv«  the  Iroquois  their  coup 
de  grdee»  and  the  work  must  be  done  quickly. 
The  Eing  could  not  afford  to  have  a  thousand 
soldiers  of  the  grand  army  eating  their  heads  off 
through  the  long  months  of  a  Canadian  winter. 

The  work  of  getting  the  expedition  ready,  there- 
fore, was  pushed  rapidly  ahead.    Snowshoes  were 
provided  for  the  regiment,  provisions  and  supplies 
were  gathered,  and  in  January,  1666,  the  expe- 
dition started  up  the  frozen  Richelieu,  traversed 
Lake  Champlain,  and  moved  across  to  the  head- 
waters of  the  Hudson.  It  was  a  spectacle  new  to  the 
northern  wilderness  of  America,  this  glittering  and 
picturesque  cavalcade  of  regulars  flanked  by  tioapa 
of  militiameu  and  bands  of  fur^thed  Indiani 


76        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

moTuig  on  its  errand  of  destruction  along  the 
frozen  rivers.  But  the  Frendi  rcguUr  tioc^ 
were  not  habituated  to  Icmg  mardiet  on  anowshoes 
in  the  dead  of  winter;  and  they  made  progrm  so 
slowly  that  the  Dutch  settlers  of  the  regkm  had 
time  to  warn  the  Mohawks  of  the  approach  at  the 
expedition.  This  upset  all  French  plans,  since  the 
leaders  had  hoped  to  fall  upon  the  Mohawk 
villages  and  to  destroy  them  before  the  tribesmen 
could  either  make  preparations  for  defense  or 
withdraw  scnithward.  Foiled  in  this  plan,  and 
afraid  that  an  early  thaw  might  make  their  route 
of  return  impossible,  the  French  gave  up  their 
project  and  started  home  again.  They  had  not 
managed  to  reach,  much  less  to  destroy,  the 
villages  of  their  enemies. 

But  the  undertaking  was  not  an  absolute  failure. 
The  Mohawks  were  astute  enough  to  see  that  only 
the  inexperience  of  the  French  had  stood  between 
them  and  destruction.  Here  was  an  enemy  which 
had  proved  able  to  come  through  the  dead  of 
winter  right  into  the  regions  which  had  hitherto 
been  regarded  as  inaccessible  from  the  north.  The 
French  might  be  depended  to  come  again  and,  by 
reason  of  greater  experience,  to  make  a  hotter  job 
of  their  coming.   The  Iroquois  reasoning  was  quite 


THE  AGE  OP  LOUIS  QVATORZE  77 
correct,  as  the  sequel  soon  disclosed.    In  Septem^ 
ber  of  the  same  year  the  French  had  once  again 
equipped  their  expedition,  more  eflfectively  this 
time.   Traveling  overland  along  nearly  the  same 
route,  it  reached  the  country  of  the  Mohawks 
without  a  mishap.    The  Indians  saved  them- 
selves by  a  rapid  flight  to  the  forests,  but  their 
palisaded  strongholds  were  demolished,  their 
houses  set  afire,  their  cachis  of  com  dug  out 
and  destroyed.   The  Mohawks  were  kft  to  face 
the  oncoming  winter  with  nothing  but  the  woods 
to  shelter  them.  Having  finished  thdr  task  of 
piinishment,  Tnuy  and  his  regnoMBt  made  their 
way  leisurely  back  to  Quebec. 

The  Mohawks  were  now  quite  ready  to  make 
terms,  and  in  1667  th«gr  sent  a  delcgatkm  to  Que- 
bec to  primer  peace.   Two  raids  into  their  terri- 
tories in  successive  years  had  taught  them  that 
they  could  not  safely  leave  their  homes  to  make 
war  against  the  tribes  of  the  west  so  long  as  the 
French  were  their  enemies.   And  the  desire  to  ^ 
dominate  the  region  of  the  lakes  was  a  first 
principle  of  Iroquois  policy  at  this  time.  An 
armistice  was  accordingly  concluded,  which  lasted 
without  serious  interruption  for  more  than  a 
decade.    One  of  the  provisions  of  Ihe  peace  was 


78        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

that  Jesuit  missioiu  should  be  established  in  the 
Iroquois  territory,  this  being  dkr  usual  way  in 
which  the  French  assured  thonsdves  of  diplomatic 
intercourse  with  the  tribes. 

With  its  trade  routes  once  more  securely  open. 
New  France  ww  began  a  period  of  marked 
prosperity.  y  and  his  staff  went  back  to 

France,  but  *nost  of  his  soldiers  remained  and 
became  settlers.  Wives  for  these  soUiiers  were 
sent  out  under  royal  auspices,  and  liberal  grants  of 
money  were  provided  to  j  the  new  households 
established.  Since  1664,  the  trade  of  the  colony 
had  been  once  more  in  the  hands  of  a  commercial 
organization,  the  Company  of  the  West  Indies, 
whose  financial  success  was,  for  the  time  being, 
assured  by  the  revival  of  the  fur  traflSc.  Industr-'-^s 
were  beginning  to  spring  into  being,  the  popula . 
was  increasing  rapidly,  and  the  King  was  showi*.^ 
a  lively  interest  in  all  the  colony's  affairs.  It  was 
therefore  a  prosperous  and  promising  colony  to 
which  Governor  Frontenac  came  in  1672. 


CHAPTER  V 


THE  IBON  GOVSBNOB 

The  ten  years  foUowing  1663  form  a  decade  <tf  «- 
traordinary  progress  in  the  history  <rf  New  France.*^^  '^""^ 
The  population  of  the  coIoq>  had  trebled,  and 
now  numbered  approximately  seven  thousand* 
the  red  peril,  thanks  to  Tracy's  oieisetic  work! 
had  been  lessened ;  while  the  for  tnde  had  grown 
to  laige  and  lucrative  praporticms.   With  this 
mcrease  in  p<^uhrtion  and  prosperity,  there  came 
a  renaissance  of  enthusiasm  for  voyages  of  explora- 
tion and  for  the  widaiing  <rf  the  colony's  frontiers. 
Glowing  reporU  went  home  to  the  King  concern- 
ing the  htent  possibilities  of  the  New  World. 
What  the  colony  now  needed  was  a  strong  and 
vigorous  govemOT  who  would  not  only  keep  a 
finn  hold  upon  what  had  been  already  a<rhieved, 
but  one  who  would  also  push  on  to  greater  and 
more  glorious  things. 
It  was  in  keeping  with  this  spirit  of  faith  and 


80        CRUSADEBS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

hope  tliat  the  Cog  lent  to  Quebec,  in  lert,  Louie 
de  Buade,  Coiiiit  F^rontcnac,  «*w»tng  jiJm  governor 
of  an  the  F^endi  domaiiii  in  North  America. 
Fifty-two  yean  of  age  when  he  came  to  Canada, 
F^tenac  had  been  a  Mldier  from  his  youth;  he 
had  fought  through  hard  campaigns  in  Italy,  in 
the  Low  Countries,  and  with  the  Venetians  in  their 
defense  of  Candia  against  the  Turks.  In  fact,  he 
had  but  shortly  returned  from  this  last  service 
when  he  was  chosen  to  succeed  Courcelle  as  the 
royal  representative  in  New  France. 

To  Frontenac*s  friends  the  appointment  seemed 
more  like  a  banishment  thau  a  promotion.  But 
there  were  several  reasons  why  the  governor 
should  have  accepted  gladly.  He  had  inherited 
only  a  modest  fortune,  and  most  of  this  had  been 
spent,  for  thrift  was  not  one  of  Frontenac's  virtues. 
His  domestic  life  had  not  been  happy,  and  thcfe 
were  no  strong  per8<nial  ties  binding  hun  to  fife 
in  France.'  Moreover,  the  post  of  governor  in 
the  colony  was  not  to  be  judged  by  what  it 
had  been  in  the  days  of  D'Avaugour  or  De 
M^.   The  reports  sent  home  by  Takn  had 

'  Saint-Simon,  in  his  M6moiret,  prints  the  cairent  Fkriaian  goMp 
that  Frontenac  was  sent  to  New  France  to  shield  him  from  the  bi- 
pcrioos  temper  of  Us  wife  and  to  aflori  Ua  a  aasM  of  fivcfihood. 


'iHE  IBON  GOTEBNOR  81 
ttintd  the  national  ambitions.  *'  I  am  no  courtier," 
thii  intendant  had  written,  "and  it  is  not  to  i  lea^ 
the  King  or  without  reason  that  I  say  this  portion 
of  the  French  monarchy  is  going  to  become  some- 
thing great.    What  I  now  see  enables  me  to  make 
such  a  prediction."   And  indeed  the  figures  of 
growth  in  population,  of  acreage  cleared,  and  of 
industries  rising  into  existence  seemed  to  justify 
th  intendant's  optimism.    Both  the  fCi^g  taid  hk 
ministers  were  building  high  hopes  on  Canada, 
as  their  choice  of  Frontenac  proves,  and  in  tlieir 
selection  of  a  man  to  carry  out  their  piftttw  they 
showed,  on  the  whole,  good  judgment  Fhmtenac 
proved  to  be  the  ablest  and  most  commanding  ol 
aU  the  officials  who  served  the  Bourbon  mon- 
aidgr  in  the  New  WorW.  In  the  kmg  line  ol 
govemois  he  approadied  most  nearly  to  what  a 
Viceroy  ought  to  be. 

It  is  true  that  in  New  IVanee  there  were  con. 
ditions  which  no  amount  of  experience  in  the  Old 
World  could  tram  a  man  to  handle.  Nor  was 
Rontenac  particuhirly  fitted  by  traininj  or 
temperammt  for  all  of  the  duties  which  his  new 
post  mvolved.  In  some  things  he  was  well- 
endowed;  he  had  great  physical  endurance,  a 
strong  will,  with  no  end  of  courage,  and  industiy 


88        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRAxNCE 

to  spare.  These  were  qualities  of  the  highest 
value  in  a  land  encircled  by  enemici  and  forced 
to  dqiend  t<a  existence  vtptm  the  ttiei^^  of  its 
own  people.  But  more  serviceable  atill  was  his 
ability  in  adapting  himsdf  to  a  new  environnient. 
Men  past  fifty  do  not  ohm  show  this  quality  in 
marked  degree,  but  IVimtenac  fitted  himself  to 
the  novelty  of  cdonial  life  exceedingly  well.  In 
his  relations  with  the  Indians  he  showed  amazing 
skill.  No  other  colonial  governor,  English,  French , 
or  Dutch,  ever  commanded  so  readily  the  respect 
and  admiration  of  the  red  man.  But  in  his  deal- 
ings with  the  intendant  and  the  bishop,  with  the 
clergy,  and  with  all  those  among  the  French  of 
New  France  who  showed  any  disposition  to  dis- 
agree with  him,  Frontenac  displayed  an  uncon- 
trollable temper,  an  arrogance  of  spirit,  and  a 
degree  of  personal  vanity  which  would  not  have 
made  for  cordial  relations  in  any  field  of  human 
effort.  He  had  formed  his  own  opinions  and  was 
quite  ready  to  ride  rough-shod  over  those  of  other 
men.  It  was  this  impetuosity  that  served  to  make 
the  official  circles  of  the  colony,  during  many 
months  of  his  term,  a  "little  hell  of  discord.** 

But  when  the  new  viceroy  arrived  at  Quebec 
he  was  in  high  fettle;  he  was  pleased  with  the 


THE  mON  GOVEBNQB  as 
iituatioii  of  the  town  and  ^tMatd  by  tlie  cnthusi- 
•rtic  greeting  wUeh  lie  lecdved  from  its  people. 
His  fint  itep  waa  to  familMrise  himMlf  with  the 
eattlng  maciiinery  of  colonial  government,  which 
lie  found  to  be  far  from  his  Mdng.    He  proceeded. 
awooTdingly,  in  his  own  imperious  way.  to  m  - 
soiae  startling  changes.   For  one  thing,  he  do 
to  summon  a  represenUtive  assembly  made  up  of 
the  derio',  the  seigneurs,  and  the  common  folk  of 
New  Prance.    This  body  he  brought  together  for 
his  inauguration  in  October,  1672.    No  such 
assembly  had  ever  been  convened  befo."ts,  and 
nothing  like  it  was  ever  allowed  to  assemble  again. 
Before  another  year  had  passed,  the  minister 
sent  Frontenac  a  polite  reprimand  with  the 
intimation  that  the  King  could    >t  permit  m  the 
colony  an  institution  he  was  dc  a.g  his  best,  and 
with  entire  success,  to  crush  out  at  home.  Hie 
same  fate  awaitt  '  the  go/emor's  othei  projecU 
the  establishment  of  a  municipal  government  in 
the  town  of  Quebec   Withm  a  few  months  <rf  his 
arrival,  Frontenac  had  allowed  the  people  of  the 
town  to  elect  a  syndic  and  two  aldmnen,  but  the 
minister  vetoed  this  action  with  the  admonition 
that  "you  should  veiy  rarely,  or,  to  speak  more 
correcUy.  never,  give  a  corporate  voice  to  the 


84        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

mhabitants,  for  ...  it  is  well  that  each  should 
speak  for  himself,  and  no  one  for  all."  In  the 
reorganization  of  colonial  administration,  there- 
fore, the  governor  found  himself  promptly  called 
to  a  halt.  He  therefore  turned  to  another  field 
whore  he  was  mudi  more  successful  in  having 
his  own  way. 

From  the  day  of  his  arrival  at  Quebec  the 
governor  saw  the  pressing  need  of  nt^ding 
French  influeoce  and  control  into  the  regions 
bordering  upon  the  Great  Lakes.  To  dissipate 
the  cdony's  effturts  in  westward  aq>ansion,  how- 
ever, was  exactly  what  he  had  been  instructed  not 
to  do.  The  King  and  his  ministers  were  sure 
that  it  would  be  far  wiser  to  devote  all  available 
energies  and  funds  to  developing  the  settled  por- 
tions of  the  land.  They  desired  the  governor  to 
carry  on  the  policy  of  encouraging  agriculture 
which  Talon  had  begun,  thus  solidifying  the 
colony  and  making  its  borders  less  difficult  to 
defend.  Frontenac's  instructions  on  this  point 
could  hardly  have  been  more  explicit,  "His 
Majesty  considers  it  more  consistent  with  the  good 
of  his  service,"  wrote  Colbert,  "that  you  apply 
yourself  to  clearing  and  settling  the  most  fertile 
places  that        nearest  the  aeacoast  and  the 


THE  mON  GOVERNOR  85 
communication  with  France  tlian  to  think  afar  of 
explorations  in  the  interior  of  the  country,  so 
distant  that  th^  can  never  be  inhabited  hy 
PrenchmoL"   This  was  discouraging  counsel, 
showing  neither  breadth  of  vision  nor  familiarity 
with  the  uigrat  needs  of  the  colony.  Frontenac 
courageously  set  these  instructions  aside,  and  in 
doing  so  he  was  wise.   Had  he  held  to  the 
letter  of  his  instructions.  New  France  would 
never  have  been  more  than  a  strip  of  terri- 
tory fringing  the  Lower  St.  Uwrence.  More 
than  any  other  Frenchman  he  helped  to  plan  the 
great  empire  of  the  West. 

Notwithstanding  the  narrow  views  of  his  superi- 
ors at  Versailles.  Frontenac  was  convinced  that 
the  colony  could  best  secure  its  own  defense  by 
controlling  the  chief  line  of  water  communicationa 
between  the  Iroquois  country  and  Blontreal.  To 
this  end  he  prepared  to  buUd  a  fort  at  Cataraqui 
where  the  St.  Lawrence  debouches  from  Lake 
Ontario.  He  was  not.  however,  the  first  to 
recognize  the  strategic  value  ol  this  pwnt  Takm 
had  marked  it  as  a  phu»<rf  importance  some  yean 
before,  and  the  English  authorities  at  Albany  had 
beoi  luged  by  the  Iroquois  chiefs  to  forestall  a^y 
■ttenqyt  that  the  French  might  make  by  bemg 


86        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
first  on  the  ground.   But  the  English  procrasti- 
nated, and  in  the  summer  of  1673  the  governor, 
with  an  imposing  array  of  troops  and  militia,  made 
his  way  to  Cataraqui,  having  first  summoned  the 
Iroquois  to  meet  him  there  in  solemn  council. 
In  rather  h|gh  dudgeon  they  came,  ready  to  make 
trouble  if  the  chance  arose;  but  Frontenac's  dis- 
play of  armed  strength,  his  free-handed  bestowal 
of  presents,  his  tactful  handling  of  the  chiefs, 
and  his  effective  oratory  at  the  conclave  soon 
assured  him  the  upper  hand.   The  fort  was  built, 
and  the  Iroquois,  while  they  continued  to  regard 
it  as  an  invasion  of  their  territories,  were  forced 
to  accept  the  new  situation  with  reluctant  grace. 

This  stroke  at  Cataraqui  inflamed  the  govemor's 
interest  in  western  affaii-s.  During  his  conferences 
with  the  Indians  he  had  heard  much  about  the 
great  waters  to  the  West  and  the  rich  beaver 
lands  which  lay  beyond.  He  was  ready,  there- 
fore, to  encourage  in  every  way  the  plans  of  those 
who  wished  to  undertake  journeys  of  expk>ration 
and  trade  into  these  regions,  evai  although  he  was 
well  aware  that  such  enterprises  would  win  little 
commendation  from  his  superiors  at  the  royal 
court.  Voyageurs  rtady  to  undertake  these  tasks 
there  were  in  plenty,  and  all  of  them  found  in  the 


THE  mON  GOVEBNOB  87 

Lran  Governor  a  stalwart  friend.  Foremost  among 
these  pioneers  of  the  Far  Country  was  Robert  Cava- 
lier de  La  Salle,  whom  Frontenac  had  placed  for  a 
time  in  command  of  the  fort  at  Cataraqui  and  who, 
in  1678,  was  commissioned  by  the  governor  to  forge 
another  link  in  the  chain  by  the  erection  of  a  fort 
at  Niagara.    There  he  also  built  a  small  vessel, 
the  first  to  ply  the  waters  of  the  upper  lakes,  and 
in  this  La  Salle  and  his  lieutenants  made  their 
way  to  Michilimackinac.    How  he  later  journeyed 
to  the  Mississippi  and  down  that  stream  to  its 
mouth  is  a  story  to  be  told  later  on  in  these  pages. 
It  was  and  will  remain  a  classic  in  the  annals 
of  exploration.    And  without  Frontenac's  vigor- 
ous support  it  could  never  have  been  accomplished. 
La  Salle,  when  he  performed  his  great  feat  of  daring 
and  endurance,  was  still  a  young  man  under  forty» 
but  his  courage,  firmness,  and  determination  were 
not  surpassed  by  any  of  his  race.   He  had  quali- 
ties that  justified  the  confidence  which  the  gover- 
nor reposed  in  him. 

But  while  La  Salle  was  the  most  conspicuous 
among  the  pathfinders  of  this  era,  he  was  not  the 
only  one.  Tonty,  Du  Lhut.  La  For«t,  La  Mothe- 
Cadillac,  and  others  were  all  in  Frontenac*s  favor, 
and  all  had  his  vigorous  support  in  their  work. 


88        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FBANCE 
Intrepid  woodnnen,  they  covered  eveiy  portion 
of  the  western  wilderness,  building  forts  and  posts 
of  trade,  winning  the  fri^dship  <rf  the  Indians, 
planting  the  arms  of  France  in  new  soil  and 
carrying  the  VexUla  Regis  into  parts  unknown 
before.   If  Frontenac  could  have  he  d  his  way,  if 
the  King  had  provided  hun  with  the  funds,  he 
would  have  run  an  iron  chain  of  fortified  posts  all 
along  the  great  water  routes  from  Cataraqui  to  the 
Mississippi— and  he  had  lieutenants  who  were 
able  to  carry  out  such  an  undertaking.  But 
there  were  great  obstacles  in  the  way,— the  luke- 
waTnness  of  the  home  government,  the  bitter 
opposition  of  the  Jesuits,  and  the  intrigues  of  his 
coUeagues.   Yet  the  governor  was  able  to  make  a 
brave  start,  and  before  he  had  finished  he  had 
firmly  laid  the  foundations  of  French  tradmg 
supremacy  in  these  western  r^ons. 

During  the  first  three  years  after  his  coming 
to  Canada,  the  governor  had  ruled  alone.  There 
was  no  intendant  or  bishop  to  hamper  him,  for 
both  Talon  and  Laval  had  gone  to  France  in 
f  1672.  But  in  1675  Uval  returned  to  the  colony, 
and  in  the  same  year  a  new  intaidant,  Jacques 
Duchesneau,  was  appointed.  With  this  change 
in  the  situation  at  Quebec  the  frfction  began  in 


THE  IBON  GOVEBNOR  s» 
eaniest,  for  FronteiMc's  imperious  temper  did  noi 
make  him  a  cheerful  sha  -er  of  authority  with  any 
ooe  else.   If  the  intendanl  and  the  bishop  had 
been  men  of  conflicting  ideas  and  dispositions, 
Prontenac  might  easily  have  held  the  balance 
of  power;  but  they  were  men  of  kindrec  aims, 
and  they  readily  combined  against  the  governor. 
United  in  their  opposition  to  him,  tney  were 
together  a  fair  match  for  Frontenac  in  ability  and 
astuteness.    It  was  not  long,  accordingly,  before 
the  whole  colony  was  once  more  aligned  in  two 
factions.   With  the  governor  were  the  UMachaiits, 
many  of  the  seigneurs,  and  aU  the  eoumirt-de^wU, 
Supporting  the  intendant  and  the  bishop  wia« 
many  of  the  subordinate  oflkials,  aD  of  the  priests, 
and  those  of  the  tradesmen  and  habitants  with 
whom  the  dmcal  influence  was  paramount. 

The  story  of  the  quarrels  whidi  u-ent  on  between 
these  two  faeticms  during  tbe  yean  1675-1680  is 
neither  brief  nor  edifying.  The  root  of  it  aU  la- 
in the  governor's  western  policy,  his  encourage 
ment  of  the  forest  traders  or  cmireurs-de-bms,  and 
his  connivance  at  the  use  of  brandy  in  the  Indian 
trade.  Thwe  were  unseemly  squabbles  about 
precedence  at  council  meetings  and  at  rchgious 
festivals,  about  trivialities  of  eveiy  sort;  but  the 


•0        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

question  of  the  brandy  trade  was  at  the  bottom 
of  them  all.   The  bishop  flayed  the  govmior  for 
letting  this  trade  go  on;  the  missionaries  declared 
that  it  was  proving  the  ruin  of  their  efforts;  and 
the  intendant  declared  that  Frontenac  Allowed 
it  to  continue  because  he  was  making  a  personal 
profit  from  the  traffic.    Charges  and  counter- 
charges went  home  to  France  with  every  ship. 
Hie  intendant  wrote  dispatches  of  wearisome 
length,  rehearsing  the  governor's  usurpations, 
insults,  and  incompetence.    "Disorder,"  he  told 
the  minister,  "rules  everywhere.    Universal  con- 
fusion prevails;  justice  is  openly  perverted,  and 
violence  supported  by  authority  determines  every- 
thing.    In  language  quite  as  unrestrained  Fronte- 
nac recounted  in  detail  the  difficulties  with  which 
he  had  to  contend  owing  to  the  intendant*s 
obstinacy,  intrigue,  and  dishonesty.  The  minister, 
appalled  by  the  bewildering  contradictions,  could 
only  lay  the  whole  matter  before  the  King,  who 
determined  to  try  first  a  courteous  reprimand  and 
to  that  end  sent  an  autograph  letter  to  each 
official.   Both  letters  were  alike  in  admonishing 
the  governor  and  the  intendant  to  work  in  har- 
mony for  the  good  of  the  colony,  but  each  con- 
cluded with  the  significant  warning:  "Unless  you 


THE  IRON  GOVERNOR  »i 
hannonize  better  in  the  future  than  in  the  past, 
my  only  alternative  will  be  to  recall  you  both.'* 
This  intimation,  coming  straight  from  their 
royal  master,  was  to  each  a  rebuke  which  could 
not  be  misunderstood.    But  it  did  not  accomplish 
much,  for  the  bitterness  and  jealousy  existing 
between  the  two  colonial  oflSctrs  was  too  strong 
to  be  overcome.    The  very  next  vessels  took  to 
France  a  new  budget  of  complaints  and  recrimi- 
nations from  both.    The  King,  as  good  as  his  word, 
issued  prompt  orders  for  their  recall  and  the  two 
officials  left  for  home,  but  not  on  the  same  vessel, 
in  the  summer  of  1682. 

The  question  as  to  which  of  the  two  was  the 
more  at  fault  is  hardly  worth  determining.  The 
share  of  blame  to  be  cast  on  each  by  the  verdict 
of  history  should  probably  be  about  equal.  Fronte- 
nac  was  by  far  tho  abler  man,  but  he  had  the 
defects  of  his  qualities.   He  could  not  brook  the 
opposition  of  men  less  competent  than  he  waa, 
and  when  he  was  provoked  his  arrogance  be- 
came intoI««ble.    In  broader  domains  of  political 
action  he  would  soon  have  out-generaled  his 
adversary,  but  in  these  petty  fields  of  neighbor- 
hood bick^ing  Duchesneau,  particularly  with  the 
occasional  nudgings  which  he  received  from  Laval, 


M        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
proved  no  unequal  match.    The  fact  remains 
that  neither  was  able  or  willing  to  sacrifice  per- 
sonal animosities  nor  to  display  any  spirit  of  coidial 
cooperation  even  at  the  royal  command.  The 
departure  of  both  was  regarded  as  a  blessing  by 
the  majority  of  the  colonists  to  whom  the  con- 
tinued squabbles  had  become  wearisome.  Yet 
there  was  not  lacking,  in  the  minds  of  many  among 
them,  the  conviction  that  if  ever  again  New 
France  should  find  itself  in  urgent  straits,  if  ever 
there  were  critical  need  of  an  inm  hand  to  rule 
within  and  to  guard  without,  there  would  still  be 
one  man  whom,  so  long  as  he  lived,  they  could 
confidently  ask  to  be  sent  out  to  them  again. 
For  the  time  being,  however,  Frontenac's  official 
career  seemed  to  be  ait  an  end.    At  sixty-two  he 
could  hardly  hope  to  regain  the  royal  favor  by 
further  service.    He  must  have  left  the  shores  of 
New  France  with  a  heavy  heart. 

Frontenac*s  successor  was  La  Barre,  an  old 
naval  officer  who  had  proved  himself  as  capable 
at  sea  as  he  was  new  to  show  himself  incompetent 
on  land.  He  was  the  antithesis  of  his  headstrong 
predecessor,  weak  in  decision,  without  personal 
energy,  without  imagination,  but  likewise  without 
any  of  Frontenac's  skill  in  the  art  of  making 


THE  IBON  GOV£BNOR  M 
tsoeadm,  WQt  La  Btm  came  MeuOes,  an  abler 
•nd  mora  eneiKetic  ooUeague,  who  was  to  succeed 
Duchemeau  as  intendant.  Both  reached  Quebec 
in  the  autumn  of  1682.  and  problems  in  plenty 
they  found  awaiting  them.    Shortly  before  their 
arrival  a  fire  had  swept  through  the  settlement  at 
Quebec,  leaving  scarcely  a  building  on  the  lands 
below  the  cliff.    To  make  matters  worse,  the 
Iroquois  had  again  thrown  themselves  across 
the  western  trade  route  and  had  interrupted  the 
coming  of  the  colony's  fur  supply.   As  every  one 
now  recognized  that  the  protection  of  this  route 
was  essential.  La  Barre  decided  that  the  Iroquois 
must  be  teught  a  lesson.   Preparations  in  rather 
ostentatious  fashion  were  therefore  made  for  a 
punitive  expedition,  and  in  the  summer  of  1684 
the  governor  with  his  troops  was  at  Cataraqui 
At  this  point,  however,  he  hegan  to  question 
whether  a  parley  might  not  be  a  better  means 
of  securing  peace  than  the  laying  waste  of  Indian 
lands.   Accordingly,  it  was  arranged  that  a 
council  with  the  Iroquois  should  be  held  across 
the  lake  from  Cataraqui  at  a  ^ace  which  lat» 
took  the  name  of  La  Famine  from  the  fact  that 
during  the  councO  the  French  supph'es  ran  low 
and  the  troops  had  to  be  put  on  short  rations. 


94        CRUSADERS  OP  NEW  FRANCE 

After  negotiations  which  the  (^ynica!  chronicler 
La  Hontan  has  described  with  picturesque  realism, 
an  inglorious  truce  was  patched  up.  The  new 
governor  was  sadly  deficient  in  his  knowledge  of 
the  Indian  temperament.  He  had  given  the 
Iroquois  an  impression  that  the  French  were  too 
proud  to  fight.  For  their  part  the  Iroquois 
offered  him  war  or  peace  as  he  might  choose, 
and  La  Barre  assured  them  that  he  chose  to  live 
at  peace.  When  the  expedition  returned  to 
Quebec  there  was  great  disgust  throughout  the 
colony,  the  edioes  of  which  were  not  without 
their  effect  at  Vosailles,  and  La  Bane  was  forth- 
with recalled. 

In  his  place  the  Kng  sent  out  the  Marquis  de 
Denonville  in  1685  wifli  power  to  make  war  on  the 
tribesmen  or  to  respect  the  peace  as  he  might  find 
ezpedi^t  upon  his  arrival.  The  new  governor 
was  an  honest,  well-intentioned  soul,  neither  men- 
tally incapable  nor  lacking  in  personal  courage. 
He  might  have  served  his  King  most  acceptably  in 
many  posts  of  routine  oflScialdom,  but  he  was  not 
the  man  to  handle  the  destinies  of  half  a  continent 
in  critical  years.  His  mission,  to  be  sure,  was  no 
sinecure,  for  the  Iroquois  had  grown  bolder  with 
the  assurance  of  support  from  the  English.  Now 


THE  mON  GOVEBNOB  9S 
that  they  were  securing  arms  and  ammunition 
from  Albany  it  was  probable  that  they  would 
cany  their  raids  right  to  the  heart  of  New  France. 
DenonviUe  was  therefore  forced  to  the  conclusion 
that  he  had  better  strike  quickly.  In  making 
this  decision  he  was  right,  for  in  dealing  with 
savage  races  a  thrust  is  almost  always  the  best 
defense. 

Armed  preparations  were  consequently  once 
more  placed  under  way,  and  in  the  summer  of 
1687  a  flotiUa  of  canoes  and  batteaux  bearing 
soldiers  and  supplies  was  again  at  Cataraqui.  This 
time  the  expedition  was  stronger  in  numbers  and 
better  equipped  than  ever  before.   Down  the 
lakes  from  Michilimackinac  came  a  force  <rf 
coureurs-de-bois,  among  them  seasoned  vet<»ans 
of  the  wilderness  like  Du  Lhut,  Tonty,  La  Poi^ 
Morel  de  la  Durantaye,  and  Nicholas  Perrot.  each 
worth  a  whole  squad  of  soldiers  when  it  came  to 
fighting  the  Iroqu<Ms  in  their  own  forests.  Atthe 
rendezvous  across  the  hike  bom  Cataraqui  the 
French  and  their  allies  mustered  nearly  three 
thousand  men.  DenonviUe  had  n<nie  of  his 
predecessor's  bravado  coupled  with  cowardice; 
his  phms  were  carried  forward  with  a  precision 
worthy  of  Frontenac.   Unlike  Frontenac,  how- 


^1 


CRUSADERS  OP  NEW  PRANCE 
ever,  he  had  a  scant  appreciation  of  the  akill  with 
which  the  red  man  could  get  out  of  the  way  in  the 
face  of  danger,  By  moving  too  slowly  after  he 
had  set  out  overland  towards  the  Seneca  villages, 
he  gave  the  enemy  time  to  place  themselves  out 
of  his  reach.  So  he  burned  their  villages  and 
destroyed  laige  areas  of  growing  com.  After 
more  than  a  week  had  been  spent  in  laying  waste 
the  land,  Denonville  and  his  expedition  retired 
slowly  to  Cataraqui.  Leaving  part  ot  his  force 
there,  the  governor  went  westward  to  Niagara, 
where  he  rebuilt  in  more  substantial  fashion  La 
Salle's  old  fort  at  that  point  and  placed  it  in  charge 
ofag<irrison.  The  eovrmirt-dlt-ftoit  then  continued 
on  their  way  to  Micfailimackinac  while  Denonville 
returned  to  Montreal' 

The  expedition  of  1887  had  not  been  a  fiasco 
like  that  of  1685,  but  neither  was  it  in  any  real 
way  a  success.  It  angered  the  whole  Iroquois 
confed  racy  without  having  sufficiently  impressed 
the  Indians  with  the  punitive  power  of  the  French. 
Denonville  had  stirred  up  the  nest  without  destroy- 
ing the  hornets.  It  was  all  too  soon  the  Indians* 
turn  to  show  what  they  could  do  as  ravagers  of 
unprotected  villages;  within  a  year  after  the 
French  expedition  had  returned,  the  Iroquois 


THE  IRON  GOVEBNOB  «f 
bands  were  raiding  the  territoty  of  the  WnaA  to 
the  very  outskirts  of  MditwiHtwIf.   The  route 
to  the  west  was  barred;  the  f ort  at  Kiion  had  to 
be  abandoned;  Cataraqui  waa  cut  off  fc«n  succor 
and  ultimately  had  to  be  d«troyed  by  its  garrison; 
not  a  single  canoe-load  of  furs  came  down  from  the 
lakes  during  the  entire  summer.   The  merchants 
weie  fadng  rum.  and  the  whole  colony  was  begin- 
ning to  tremble  for  its  very  existence.   The  seven 

years  smee  Prontenac  left  the  hmd  had  indeed  been 
a  lurid  interval. 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  tidings  of  the 
oofony's  dire  distress  were  hurried  to  the  King, 
and  the  Grand  Monarch  moved  with  rare  good 
•ense.  He  promptly  sent  for  that  grim  old  vet- 
eran whom  he  had  recalled  in  an  r  seven  years 
before.  In  all  the  realm  Frontenac  was  the 
one  man  who  could  be  depended  upon  to  restore 
the  prestige  of  France  along  the  great  trade 
routes. 

The  Great  Onontio.  as  Frontaiac  was  known  to 
the  Indians,  reached  the  St.  Lawrence  m  the  Ute 
autumn  of  1689,  just  as  the  colony  was  about  to 
pass  through  its  darkest  hours.  Quebec  greeted 
h;m  as  a  Redemptor  Patriae;  itspeopfc.  m  the  words 
of  LaHontan,  were  as  Jews  welcoming  the  Messiah. 

7 


M        CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

Nor  was  their  enthusiasm  without  good  cause, 
for  in  a  few  years  Frontenac  demonstrated  his 
ability  to  put  the  colony  on  its  feet  once  more. 
He  s*?ttled  its  internal  broils,  opened  the  channels 
of  trade,  restored  the  forts,  repulsed  the  English, 
and  brought  the  Iroquois  to  terms. 

Now  that  his  mission  had  been  achieved  and  he 
was  no  longer  as  robust  as  of  old,  the  Iron  Gover- 
nor asked  the  minister  to  keep  him  in  mind  for 
some  suitable  sinecure  in  France  if  the  opportu- 
nity came.  This  the  minister  readily  promised, 
but  the  promise  was  still  unfulfilled  when  Fronte- 
nac was  stricken  with  his  last  illness.  On  Novem- 
ber 28,  1698,  the  greatest  of  the  Onontios,  or 
govonors,  passed  away.  "Devoted  to  the  service 
of  his  king,"  says  his  eulogist,  "more  busied  with 
duty  than  with  gain;  inviolable  in  his  fidelity  to  his 
triads,  he  was  as  vigorous  a  supporter  as  he  was 
an  untiring  foe."  Had  his  oflBcial  career  closed 
with  his  recall  in  1682,  Frontenac  would  have 
ranked  as  one  of  the  singular  misfits  of  the  old 
French  colonial  system.  But  the  brilliant  suc- 
cesses of  his  second  term  made  men  forget  the 
earlier  days  of  petulance  and  petty  bickerings. 
In  the  sharp  contrasts  of  his  nature  Frontenac 
was  an  unusual  man,  combining  many  good  and 


THE  mON  GOVEBNOB  99 
great  qualities  with  personal  shortoomiiigs  that 
were  equally  pronounced.  In  the  dvil  history  <^ 
New  France  he  chaUenges  attention  as  the  most 
remarkable  figure. 


CHAPTER  VI 


lA  8ALLB  AND  THK  TOTAOKUBS 

The  greatest  and  most  enduring  achievement  of 
Frontenac's  first  term  was  the  OEpIoration  of  the 
territory  southwestward  of  the  Great  Lakes  and 
the  planting  of  French  influoice  there.  This 
work  was  due,  in  large  part,  to  the  courage  and 
energy  ot  the  intrepid  La  Salle.  Ren6-Robert 
Cavelier,  Sieur  de  La  SaUe,  like  so  many  others 
who  followed  the  fleurHle-lis  into  the  recesses  of  the 
nevr  continent,  was  of  Norman  birth  and  lineage. 
Rouen  was  the  town  of  his  nativity;  the  year  1643 
probably  the  date  of  his  birth.    How  the  days  of 
his  youth  were  spent  we  do  not  know  except  that 
he  received  a  good  education,  presumably  in  a 
Jesuit  seminary.  While  still  in  the  early  twenties  he 
came  to  Montreal  where  he  had  an  older  brof  h», 
a  priest  of  the  Seminary  of  St.  Sulpice.    This  was 
in  1666.    Through  the  influence  of  his  broths, 
no  doubt,  he  received  from  the  Seminaiy  a  gnmt 

100 


lA  SALLE  AND  THE  VOYAGEmtS  101 

of  tlie  aeigiieuiy  at  LMshine  on  the  river  above  th^ 
town,  and  at  once  began  the  woik  of  devebping 
this  property. 

If  La  Salle  intended  to  become  a  yeomafl  of 
New  France*  his  choice  of  a  site  was  not  of  the 
best.    The  seigneury  which  he  acquired  was  one 
of  the  most  dangerous  spots  in  the  whole  colony, 
being  right  in  the  path  of  Iroquois  attack.  He 
was  able  to  gather  a  few  settlers  around  him,  it 
is  true,  but  their  homes  had  to  be  enclosed  by 
palisades,  and  they  hardly  dared  venture  into  the 
fields  unarmed.    Though  the  Iroquois  and  the 
French  were  just  now  at  peace,  the  danger  of 
treachery  was  never  absent.   On  the  other  hand 
no  situation  could  be  more  favorable  for  one 
desiring  to  try  his  hand  at  ttu-  fur  trade.   It  was 
inevitable,  therefore,  that  a  young  man  ai  La 
Salle's  adventurous  temperamoit  and  commeidai 
ancestry  should  soon  forsake  the  iriocwke  dnidgeiy 
of  clearing  land  for  the  mcwe  eiciting  and  iqjpar- 
ently  more  profitable  punnit      f<ne8t  trade. 
That  was  what  haiq>eiied.   In  the  win^  of 
1668-1669  he  heard  from  the  Indians  their  8t<ny 
of  a  great  southwestem  rivor  which  made  its  way 
to  the  "Vermilion  Sea."   The  ledtal  qu^Vkened 
the  restless  strain  in  his  N<»man  blood.   Here,  he 


102       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
thought,  was  the  long-sought  passage  to  the  shores 
of  the  Orient,  and  he  determined  to  foUow  the  river. 

Having  no  other  means  of  obtaining  funds  with 
which  to  equip  an  expedition.  La  SaDe  sold  his 
seigneury  and  at  on^  began  his  preparations. 
In  July,  1669,  he  set  off  with  a  party  of  about 
twenty  men,  some  of  whom  were  missionaries 
sent  by  the  Seminary  of  St.  Siilpice  to  carry  the 
tidings  of  the  faith  into  the  heart  of  the  continent. 
Up  the  St.  Lawrence  and  along  the  south  shore  of 
Lake  Ontario  they  went,  halting  at  Irondequoit 
Bay  while  La  SaUe  and  a  few  of  his  foUowers 
went  overhmd  to  the  Seneca  villages  in  search  of 
guides.    Continuing  to  Niagara,  the  party  divided 
and  the  Sulpicians  made  their  way  to  the  Sault 
Ste.  Marie,  while  La  Salle  with  the  remainder  of 
the  expedition  struck  out  south  of  Lake  Erie  and  in 
all  probability  reached  the  Ohio  by  descending  one 
of  Its  branches.    But,  as  no  journal  or  contempor- 
ary record  of  the  venture  after  they  had  left 
Niagara  has  come  down  to  us,  the  detaUs  of  the 
journey  are  unknown.    It  is  believed  that  de- 
sertions  among  his  followers  prevented  further 
progress  and  that,  in  the  winter  of  166»-1670. 
La  Salle  retraced  his  steps  to  the  hikes.    Li  its' 
main  object  the  expedition  had  be«i  a  failure. 


lA  SALLE  AND  THE  VOYAGEUBS  108 

Haviog  exhausted  his  funds.  La  Salle  had  no 
opportunity,  for  the  present  at  least,  of  making 
another  trial.    He  accordingly  asked  Frontenrj 
for  trading  privileges  at  Cataraqui,  the  site  of 
modem  Kingston,  where  stood  the  fortified  post 
named  after  the  governor.    Upon  Frontenac's 
recommendation  La  Salle  received  in  1674  not  only 
the  exclusive  right  to  trade  but  also  a  grant  of 
land  at  Fort  Frontenac  on  condition  that  he  would 
rebuild  the  defenses  with  stone  and  supply  a 
garrison.    The  conditions  being  acceptable,  the 
explorer  hastened  to  his  new  p<wt  and  was  soon 
engaged  in  the  fur  trade  upon  a  considerable  scale. 
La  Salle,  however,  needed  more  capital  than  he 
himself  could  supply,  and  in  1677  he  made  a  aeooDd 
trip  to  France  with  letters  from  Frontenac  to  the 
King  and  Colbert.   He  also  had  the  further 
design  in  view  ot  obtainhig  authority  and  funds  f 
another  trip  of  ezphmtion  to  the  West.  Smce 
his  previous  expedition  in  1669  two  of  his  com- 
patriots,        Marquette  and  Louis  Jdiet,  had 
leached  the  Great  Biver  and  had  found  every 
reason  for  believing  that  its  course  ran  south  to  the 
Gulf  <rf  Mexico,  and  not  southwestward  to  the 
Gulf  of  California,  as  had  previously  been  sup- 
posed.   But  they  had  not  followed  the  Mississippi 


104       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

to  it  outlet,  and  this  was  what  La  SaUe  was  now 

determined  to  do. 

In  Paris  he  found  attentive  listeners  to  his  plans, 
and  even  the  King's  ministen  were  interested' 
so  that  when  U  SaUe  sailed  back  to  Quebec  in* 
1678  he  brought  a  royal  decree  authorizing  him 
to  proceed  with  his  project.   With  him  came  a 
daring  spirit  who  was  to  be  chief  lieutenant  and 
faithful  companion  in  the  ensuing  years,  Henri  de 
Tonty.   This  adventurous  soldier  was  later  known 
among  the  Indians  as  "Tonty  of  the  Iron  Hand," 
for  in  his  youth  he  had  lost  a  hand  in  battle,  and 
m  its  stead  now  wore  an  artificial  one  of  iron, 
which  he  used  from  time  to  time  with  wholesome 
effect   He  was  a  man  of  great  physical  strength 
and  commensurate  courage,  loyal  to  his  chief 
and  almost  La  Salle's  equal  in  perseverance. 

La  Salle's  party  lost  no  time  in  proceeding  to 
Fort  Frontenae.  Even  though  the  wini . .  v  as  at 
hand,  Hennepin  was  at  once  jent  f  rn-ud  to 
Niagara  with  instructions  to  build  a  post  and  to 
begin  the  construction  of  a  vessel  so  that  the 
journey  westward  migh  be  begun  with  the  opcm- 
mg  of  spring.  Later  in  the  winter  La  Salle  and 
Tonty  joined  the  party  at  Niagara  where  the  fort 
was  completed.   Before  spring  arrived,  a  vessel 


LA  SALLE  AND  THE  VOYAGEUBS  lOS 
ol  about  lorty-fiye  tons,  the  largest  yet  buflt  for 
service  on  the  kkes,  had  been  constructed.  On 
its  prow  stood  a  carved  griffin,  from  the  armorial 
bearings  of  Prontenac,  and  out  of  its  portholes 
frowned  several  small  cannon.  With  the  advent 
of  summer  La  Salle  and  his  followers  went  aboard  ; 
the  sails  were  spread,  and  in  due  course  the  expe- 
dition reached  Michilimackinac,  where  the  Jesuits 
had  ah^ady  established  their  most  westerly 
mission. 

The  arrival  of  the  Griffin  brought  Indians 
by  the  hundred  to  marvel  at  the  "floating  fort" 
and  to  barter  their  furs  for  the  trinkets  with  which 
La  Salle  had  provided  himself.    The  little  vessel 
then  sailed  westward  into  Lake  Michigan  and 
finally  dropped  anchor  in  Greai  Bay  where  an 
additional  load  of  beaver  skins  was  put  on  deck. 
With  the  approach  of  autumn  the  return  trip  began. 
La  Salle,  however,  did  not  accompany  his  valuable 
cargo,  having  a  mind  to  spend  the  wintw  in 
es^lorations  along  the  Illinois.  LiSeptanbcr, 
with  many  misgivings,  he  watdied  the  Or^n  set 
sail  in  charge  of  a  pibt   Then,  with  the  rest  ol 
his  followers  he  started  scmthward  aloog  the 
Wisconsin  shore.   Reaching  the  mouth  ol  the  St 
Joseph,  he  stmdk  into  the  interior  to  the  upper 


IW       CRUSADERS  OP  NEW  FRANCE 
Kankakee.    This  stream  the  voyageurs,  who 
numbered  about  forty  in  all,  descended  until 
they  reached  the  Illinois,  which  th^  followed 
to  the  point  where  Peoria  now  stands. 

Here  La  Salle's  troubles  began  in  abundance. 
The  Indians  endeavored  to  dissuade  him  from 
leading  the  expedition  farther,  and  even  the 
explorer's  own  followers  began  to  desert  Cha- 
grinned  at  these  untoward  circumstances  and  on 
his  guard  lest  the  Indians  prove  openly  hostile. 
La  Salle  proceeded  to  secure  his  position  by  the 
erection  of  a  fort  to  which  he  gave  the  name 
Crfeveooeur.   Here  he  left  Tonty  with  the  major- 
ity of  the  party,  while  he  himself  started 
five  men  back  to  Niagara.   His  object  was  Ji 
part  to  get  supplies  for  building  a  vessel  at  Fort 
Cr&vecoeur,  and  m  part  to  learn  what  had  become 
of  the  GrijgHn,  for  since  that  vessel  had  sailed 
homeward  he  had  heard  no  word  from  her  crew. 
Proceeding  across  what  is  now  southern  Michigan, 
La  Salle  emerged  on  the  shores  of  the  Detroit 
River.    From  this  point  he  pushed  across  the 
neck  of  land  to  Lake  Erie,  where  he  built  a  canoe 
which  brought  him  to  Niagara  at  Eastertide, 
1680.    His  fears  for  the  fate  of  the  Grifin  were 
now  confirmed:  the  vessel  had  been  lost,  and  with 


Lk  SALLE  AND  THE  VOYAGEUBS  107 

W  a  fortune  in  fuw.   Nothing  daunted,  however. 
La  Salle  hurried  on  to  Fort  Frontenac  and  thence 
with  such  speed  to  Montreal  that  he  accomplished 
the  trip  from  the  Illinois  to  the  Ottawa  in  less 
than  three  months— a  feat  hitherto  unsurpassed 
in  the  annals  of  American  exploration.  ^ 
At  Montreal  the  explorer,  who  once  more  sought 
the  favor  of  Frontenac,  was  provided  with  equip- 
ment at  the  King's  expense.    Within  a  few  months 
he  was  again  at  Fort  Frontenac  and  ready  to  rejoin 
Tonty  at  Crfevecoeur.    Just  as  he  was  about  to 
depart,  however,  word  came  that  the  Cr^vecGeur 
garrison  had  mutinied  and  had  destroyed  the  post. 
La  Salle's  one  hope  now  was  that  his  faithful  lieu- 
tenant had  held  on  doggedly  and  had  saved  the 
vessel  he  had  been  building.   But  Tonty  in  the 
meantime  had  made  his  way  with  a  few  followen 
to  Green  Bay,  so  that  when  La  SaDe  reached  the 
Illinois  he  found  ev«yone  gone.  Undismayed 
by  this  climax  to  his  misfortunes.  La  Salle  nevetw 
theless  pushed  on  down  the  Dlmois,  and  eariy 
in  December  reached  its  oonflu^ce  with  the 
Mississippi. 

To  follow  the  course  of  this  great  stream  with 
the  small  party  which  accompanied  him  seemed, 
howevor,  too  hazardous  an  unc -^.aking.  La 


108  CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
Salle,  therefore,  retraced  his  steps  once  more 
and  spent  the  next  winter  at  Fort  Miami  on  the 
St.  Joseph  to  the  southeast  of  Lake  Michigan. 
In  the  spring  word  came  to  him  that  Tonty  was  at 
Michilimackinac,  and  thither  he  hastened,  to  hear 
from  Tonty's  own  lips  the  long  tale  of  disaster. 
"Any  one  else,"  wrote  an  eye-witness  of  the  meet- 
ing, "would  have  thrown  up  his  hands  and  aban- 
doned the  enterprise;  but  far  from  this,  with  a 
finnness  and  constancy  that  never  had  its  equal, 
I  saw  him  more  resdved  than  ever  to  continue  his 
work  and  push  forward  his  discovery." 

Now  that  he  had  caught  his  first  glimpsed  the 
Miwissippi.  U  SaDe  was  determined  to  persist 
until  he  had  followed  its  course  to  the  outlet. 
Returning  with  Tonty  to  Fort  Prontenac,  he 
teplenished  his  supplies.    In  this  same  autumn  of 
1681,  with  a  larger  number  of  followers,  the  explorer 
was  again  on  his  way  to  the  Illinois.    By  February 
the  party  had  reached  the  Mississippi.  Passing 
the  Missouri  and  the  Ohio,  La  Salle  and  his  follow- 
ers kept  steadily  on  their  way  and  early  in  April 
reached  the  spot  where  the  Father  of  Waters 
debouches  through  three  channels  into  the  Gulf. 
Here  at  the  outlet  they  set  up  a  column  with  the 
insignia  of  France,  and,  as  they  took  possessioB 


Lk  BALLS  AND  THE  VOYAGBITRS  100 
of  tlw  land  in  the  name  of  their  King,  they  chanted 
in  adenm  tones  the  Exaudiai,  and  in  the  ^»^rt  of 
God  they  set  up  their  banners. 

But  the  French  were  short  of  supplies  and  could 
not  stay  long  after  the  symbols  of  sovereignty 
had  been  raised  aloft.    Paddling  slow^  against 
the  current.  La  Salle  and  his  party  reached  the 
Illinois  only  in  August.   Here  La  Salle  and 
Tonty  built  their  Port  St.  Louis  and  here  they 
spent  the  winter.   During  the  nest  sttmiMr 
(1683)  the  indefatigable  explorer  joumesyed  down 
to  Quebec,  and  on  the  last  sL^  of  the  year  took 
passage  for  PraL       In  the  mewitiiiie,  Rontenac, 
always  his  firm  friend  and  siqyporter,  had  been 
recalled,  and  La  Bane,  the  new  governs,  was 
unfriendly.   A  dhfect  appeal  to  the  home  authori- 
ties for  backing  seoned  the  only  way  <rf  securing 
funds  for  further  eiplorations. 

AcwMfdingly,  early  in  ie84  U  SaUe  appeared  at 
the  Frendi  court  with  ekborate  plans  for  founding 
a  colony  in  the  valley  of  the  lower  Mississippi. 
This  time  the  expedition  was  to  proceed  by  sea. 
To  this  project  the  King  gave  his  assent,  and 
cwmnMided  the  royal  officers  to  furnish  the  sup- 
plies. By  midsummer  four  ships  were  ready 
to  set  sail  for  the  Gulf.    Once  more,  however. 


110  CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCisi 
troubles  bewt  La  SaUe  on  every  hand.  Dueaae 
brake  out  on  the  vesaeb;  the  ofBcen  quarreled 
unong  theniMlves;  tho  expedition  was  attacked 
by  the  Spaniards,  and  one  ship  was  lost.  Not 
until  the  end  <rf  December  was  a  landing  made, 
and  then  not  at  the  Mississippi's  mouth  but  at  a 
spot  far  to  the  west  of  it,  <m  the  sands  of  Mata- 
gorda Bay. 

Finding  that  he  had  missed  his  reckonings, 
Ia  Salle  directed  a  part  of  his  company  to  follov/ 
the  shore.   After  many  days  of  fruitless  search 
they  established  a  permanent  camp  and  sent  the 
largest  vessel  back  to  France.    Their  repeated 
efforts  to  reach  the  Mississippi  over!and  were  in 
vain.    Finally,  in  the  winter  cf  1687,  La  Salle  with 
a  score  of  his  strongest  followers  struck  out  north- 
ward, determined  to  make  their  way  to  the  Lakes, 
where  they  might  find  succor.    To  follow  the 
detail  of  their  dreary  mardi  would  be  tedious. 
The  hardships  of  the  journey,  without  adequate 
equipment  or  provisions,  and  the  incessant  danger 
of  attack  by  the  Indians  increased  petty  jealousies 
into  opeai  mutmy.   On  the  l»th  of  March,  1687, 
the  courageous  and  mdefatigable  La  SaHe  was 
treacherously  assassmated  by  one  of  his  own  party. 
Here  m  the  fastnesses  of  the  Southwest  died  at 


lA  SALLE  AND  THE  VOYAGBUBS  in 
the  age  of  forty-four  the  intrepid  explorer  of  New 
FrwKse,  whom  Tonty  oJled-perhaps  not  untruth- 
ful—"otie  of  the  greatest  men  of  this  age. " 

"Thua,"  writes  a  later  historian  with  all  the 
pewpecUve  of  the  intervening  years,  "was  cut 
short  the  career  of  a  man  whose  personality  is 
impressed  in  some  respects  more  strongly  than  that 
erf  any  other  upon  the  history  of  New  France.  Hia 
schemes  were  too  far-reaching  to  succeed.  They 
required  the  strength  and  resources  of  a  half- 
dozen  nations  like  the  France  of  Louis  XIV. 
Nevertheless  the  lines  upon  which  New  France 
continued  to  develop  were  substantially  those 
which  La  Salle  had  in  mind,  and  the  fabric  <rf  a 
wilderness  empire,  of  which  he  hud  the  foundations, 
grew  with  the  general  growth  of  cohmiaation. 
and  in  the  next  century  became  truly  formidable. 
It  was  not  until  Wolfe  climbed  the  Heights  of 
Abraham  that  the  great  ideal  of  La  Salle  was 
finally  overthrown." 

It  would  be  difficult,  indeed,  to  find  among  the 
whole  array  of  explorers  whidi  history  can  oOFer 
in  aU  ages  a  perseverance  more  dogged  in  the  face 
of  abounding  difficulties.  Phoenix-like,  he  rose 
time  aft»  time  from  the  ashes  of  adversity. 
Neither  fatigue  nor  famine,  disappointment  nor 


118       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE  ' 
even  disaster,  availed  to  swerve  him  from  liis 
purpose.    To  him,  more  than  to  any  one  else  of 
his  time,  the  French  could  justly  attribute  their 
early  hold  upon  the  great  regions  of  the  West. 
Other  explorers  and  voyageurs  of  his  generation 
there  were  in  plenty,  and  their  service  was  not 
inconsiderable.    But  in  courage  and  persistence, 
as  well  as  in  the  scope  of  his  achievements.  La 
Salle,  the  pathfinder  of  Rouen,  towered  above  them 
all.   He  had,  what  so  many  of  the  others  lacked, 
a  dear  vision  of  what  the  great  plains  and  valleys 
of  the  Middle  West  could  yield  towards  the  enrich- 
ment of  a  nation  in  years  to  come.    "  America, "  as 
Parkman  has  aptly  said,  "owes  him  an  enduring 
memory;  for  in  this  masculine  figure  she  sees 
the  pioneer  who  guided  her  to  the  possession  of 
her  richest  heritage.  ** 


CHAPTEB  Vn 


THE  CHUltCH  IN  NEW  FRANCE 

Nearly  all  that  was  distinctive  in  the  hfe  of  old 
Canada  links  itself  in  one  way  or  another  with 
the  Catholic  religion.   From  first  to  last  in  the 
history  of  New  Prance  the  most  pervading  trait 
was  the  loyalty  of  its  people  to  the  chunsh  of  their 
fathers.   Intendants  might  come  and  go;  gover- 
nors  abode  their  destined  hour  and  went  their  way; 
but  the  apostles  of  the  ancient  faith  never  lot  one 
moment  released  then-  grip  upon  the  hearts  and 
minds  of  the  Canadians.   During  two  centurfcg 
the  political  life  of  the  cokmy  ran  its  varied 
rounds ;  the  habits  of  the  people  were  transformed 
with  the  coming  of  material  prosperity;  but  the 
Church  wait  on  unchanged,  unchanging.  One 
may  praise  the  steadfastness  with  which  the 
Church  fought  tot  what  its  bishops  believed  to  be 
Hght,  or  one  may,  <m  the  other  hand,  decry  the 
■wogwice  of  its  pretensions  to  civU  power  and  its 
•  us 


114       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
hampering  conservatism;  but  as  the  great  central 
fact  in  the  history  of  New  France,  the  hegemony 
of  Catholicism  cannot  be  ignored. 

When  Frenchmen  began  the  work  of  founding 
a  dominion  in  the  New  World,  their  own  hind 
was  convulsed  with  religious  troubles.   Not  only 
were  the  Huguenots  breakmg  from  the  trammeb 
of  the  old  religion,  but  within  the  Catholic  Church 
itself  m  France  there  were  two  great  contending 
factions.   One  group  strove  for  the  preservation 
of  the  Gallican  UberUes,  the  special  rights  of  the 
French  King  and  the  French  bishops  in  the  ecclesi- 
astical government  of  the  land,  while  the  other 
daimed  for  the  Pope  a  supremacy  over  all  earthly 
rulers  m  matters  of  spiritual  concern.    It  was  not 
a  difference  on  pomts  of  doctrine,  for  the  Gallicans 
did  not  question  the  headship  of  the  Papacy  in 
things  of  the  spirit.    What  they  insisted  upon 
was  the  circumscribed  nature  of  the  papal  power 
in  temporal  matters  within  the  realm  of  France, 
particularly  with  regard  to  the  right  of  appomt- 
ment  to  ecclesiastical  positions  with  endowed 
revenues.   Bishops,  priests,  and  religious  orden 
ranged  themselves  on  one  side  or  the  other,  for 
it  was  a  conflict  in  which  there  could  benonea- 
trality.    As  the  royal  authorities  were  heart  and 


THE  CHURCH  IN  NEW  FRANCE  115 
soul  with  the  Gallicims,  it  was  natural  enough 
that  priests  of  this  group  should  gain  the  first 
religiouo  foothold  in  the  colony.    The  earliest 
priests  brought  to  the  colony  were  members  of 
the  R6coUet  Order.    They  came  with  Champlain 
in  1615,  and  made  their  headquarters  in  Quebec 
at  the  suggestion  of  the  King's  secretary.  For 
ten  years  they  labored  in  the  colony,  striving 
bravely  to  clear  the  way  for  a  great  missionaiy 
crusade. 

But  the  day  of  the  Recollets  in  New  Prance  was 
not  long.   In  1625  came  the  advance  guard  of 
another  religious  order,  the  militant  Jesuits, 
bringing  with  them  their  traditions  of  unwavering 
loyalty  to  the  Ultramontane  cause.    The  work 
of  the  E^ollets  had,  on  the  whole,  been  dis- 
appointing,  for  their  numbers  and  their  resources 
proved  too  smaU  for  <^ective  progress.  During 
ten  years  of  devoted  hibor  th^  had  scarcely  been 
able  to  make  any  impressiMi  upon  the  great 
wilderness  of  heath<»iism  that  hiy  on  all  sides. 
In  view  of  the  apparent  futility  of  their  eflForts 
the  coming  of  the  Jesuits -suggested,  it  may  be,* 
by  Champlain  — was  probably  not  unwelcome  ta 
them.   Richelieu,  moreover,  had  now  brought 
his  Ultramontane  sympathies  close  to  the  seat  of 


116       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
royal  power,  so  that  the  King  no  longer  was  in  a 
position  to  oppose  the  project.   At  any  rate  the 
Jesuits  sailed  for  Canada,  and  then-  arrival  forms 
a  notable  landmark  in  the  history  of  the  colony. 
Their  dogged  zeal  and  iron  pereistence  carried 
them  to  pomts  which  missionaries  of  no  other 
religious  order  would  have  reached.   For  the 
Jesuits  were,  above  aU  thmgs  else,  the  harbingers 
of  a  militant  faith.   Then-  organization  and  their 
methods  admirably  fitted  them  to  be  the  pioneers 
of  the  Cross  in  new  knds.    They  were  men  of 
action,  seeking  to  win  their  crown  of  glory  and 
then-  reward  through  intense  physical  and  spiritual 
exertions,  not  through  long  seasons  of  prayer 
and  meditation  m  cloistered  seclusion.  Loyola, 
the  founder  of  the  Order,  gave  to  the  world  the 
nucleus  of  a  crusading  host,  disciplined  as  no  army 
ever  was.    If  the  Jesuits  could  not  achieve  the 
spuitual  conquest  of  the  New  World,  it  was 
certam  that  no  others  could.    And  this  conquest 
they  did  achieve.    The  whole  course  of  Catholic 
missionary  effort  throughout  the  Western  Hemi- 
sphere was  shaped  by  members  of  the  Jesuit 
Order. 

Only  four  of  these  priests  came  to  Quebec  in 
1625.  Although  it  was  intended  that  others  shouW 


THE  CHmtCH  m  NEW  FRANCE  117 
follow  at  once,  thdr  number  was  not  substantially 
increased  untfl  seven  years  later,  when  the  troubles 
with  England  were  brought  to  an  end  and  the 
colony  was  once  more  securely  in  the  hands  of  the 
French.    Then  the  Jesuits  came  steadily,  a  few 
arriving  with  almost  every  ship,  and  either  singly 
or  together  they  were  sent  off  to  the  Indian  settle- 
ments —  to  the  Hurons  around  the  Georgian  Bay, 
to  the  Algonquins  north  of  the  Ottawa,  and  to  the 
Iroquois  south  oi  the  Lakes.    The  physical  vigor, 
the  moral  heroism,  and  the  unquenchable  religious 
zeal  of  these  missionaries  were  qualities  exemplified 
in  a  measure  and  to  a  degree  which  are  beyond 
the  power  of  any  pen  to  describe.   Historians  of 
all  creeds  have  tendered  homage  to  their  self- 
sacrifice  and  zeal,  and  never  has  woik  of  human 
hand  or  spirit  been  more  worthy  ol  tribute.  The 
Jesuit  went,  often  alone,  where  no  otiuos  dared 
to  go,  and  he  faced  unknown  dangers  which  had 
all  the  possibilities  of  torture  and  martyrdom. 
Nor  did  this  energy  waste  itself  in  flashes  ol 
isolated  triumph.   The  Jesuit  was  a  monbw  (rf 
an  <^ent  organisation,  skillfully  guided  by  in- 
^ired  leaden  and  carrying  its  extensive  work  of 
ChristianizatKm  with  machine-like  thoroughness 
through  the  vastness  ol  five  continents.   We  are 


118       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
too  apt  to  think  only  of  the  individual  mission- 
ary's  glowing  spirit  and  rugged  faith,  his  pictur- 
esque strivings  against  great  odds,  and  to  regard 
him  as  a  guerilla  warrior  against  the  hosts  of 
darkness.    Had  he  been  this,  and  nothing  more, 
his  efforts  must  have  been  altpgetherin  vain.  The 
great  services  which  the  Jesuit  missionary  rendered 
in  the  New  World,  both  to  his  country  and  to  his 
creed,  were  due  not  less  to  the  matchless  organi- 
zation of  the  Order  to  which  he  belonged  than  to 
qualities  of  courage,  patience,  and  fortitude  which 
he  himself  showed  as  a  missionary. 

During  the  first  few  years  of  Jesuit  effort 
among  the  Indians  of  New  France  the  results 
were  pitifully  smaH.   The  Hurons,  among  whom 
the  missionaries  put  forth  their  mitial  labors, 
were  poor  stock,  even  as  red  men  went.  The 
minds  of  these  half-nomadic  and  dull-witted  sav- 
ages were  filled  with  gross  superstitions,  and  their 
senses  had  been  brutalized  by  the  incessant  tor- 
ments  of  their  Iroquois  enemies.    Amid  the  toils 
and  hazards  and  discomforts  of  so  insecure  and 
wandering  a  life  the  Jesuits  found  htUe  oppor- 
tunity for  soundly  mstructing  the  Hurons  in  the 
faith.    Hence  there  were  but  few  neophytes  in 
these  early  years.   By  1640  the  missionaries  could 


THE  CHURCH  IN  NEW  PRANCE  ii» 
count  only  a  hundred  converts  in  a  population  of 
many  thousands,   and  even  this  little  quoU 
included  many  infants  who  had  died  soon  after 
receiving  the  rites  of  baptism.   More  mission- 
aries kept  coming,  however;  the  work  steadily 
broadened;  and  the  posts  of  service  were  multi- 
plied.   In  due  time  the  footprints  of  the  Jesuits 
were  everywhere,  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the 
Mississippi,  from  the  tributaries  of  the  Hudson 
to  the  regions  north  of  the  Ottawa.   Le  Jeune, 
Masse,    Brebeuf,    Lalemant,    Ragueneau,  Le 
Dablon,  Jogues,  Gamier,  Raymbault,  P^n, 
Moyne,  AUouez,  DruiUetes,  Chaumonot,  Menard, 
Bressani,  Daniel,  Chaband,  and  a  hundred  others, 
—thQrsoonformedthatlegion  whose  works  of  cour- 
age and  devotion  stand  forth  so  prominently  in  the 
early  annals  of  New  France. 

Once  at  ih&r  stations  in  the  upper  country,  the 
missionaries  regularly  sent  down  to  the  Superior 
of  the  Order  at  Quebec  their  full  reports  of 
progress,  difficulties,  and  hopes,  all  mingled  with 
interesting  descriptions  of  Indian  customs,  folk- 
lore, and  life.  It  is  no  wonder  that  these  narra- 
tives, "jotted  down  hastily,"  as  Le  Jeune  tells  us, 
"now  in  one  place,  now  in  another,  sometimes  on 
water,  sometimes  on  land,"  were  often  crude,  or 


120  CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
that  th^  required  careful  editing  befor  being 
aent  home  to  France  for  publication.  In  their 
printed  form,  however,  these  MaHoM  des  JStuHes 
gained  a  wide  circle  of  European  readers;  they 
inspired  more  misiiionaries  to  come,  and  they 
drew  from  well-to-do  laymen  large  donations 
of  money  for  carrying  on  the  crusade. 

The  royal  authorities  also  gave  their  earnest 
support,  for  they  saw  in  the  Jesuit  missionary  not 
merely  a  torchbearer  of  his  faith  or  a  servant  of  the 
Church.  They  appreciated  his  loyalty  and  remem- 
bered that  he  never  forgot  his  King,  nor  shirked 
his  duty  to  the  cause  of  France  among  the  tribes. 
Every  mission  post  thus  became  an  embassy, 
and  every  Jesuit  an  ambassador  of  his  race,  striv- 
ing to  strengthen  the  bonds  of  friendship  between 
the  people  to  whom  he  went  and  the  people  from 
whom  he  came.    The  French  authorities  at  Que- 
bec were  not  slow  to  recognize  what  an  ever- 
present  help  the  Jesuit  could  be  in  times  of  Indian 
trouble.    One  governor  expressed  the  situation 
with  fidelity  when  he  wroti  to  the  home  authori- 
ties that,  "although  the  interests  of  the  Gospel  do 
not  require  us  to  keep  missionaries  in  all  the  Indian 
villages,  the  interests  of  the  civil  government  for 
the  advantage  <rf  trade  must  induce  us  to  manage 


THE  CaUBCH  IN  NEW  FRANCE  m 
tliiiig»  so  tiiat  we  may  always  have  at  least  one  of 
th«n  there. "  It  must  therefore  be  admitted  that, 
when  the  civil  authorities  did  encourage  the 
missions,  they  did  not  always  do  so  with  a  purely 
spiritual  motive  in  mind. 

As  the  political  and  commercial  agent  of  his 
people,  the  Jesuit  had  great  opportuniUes,  and 
in  this  capacity  he  usually  gave  a  fuU  measure  of 
service.    After  he  had  gained  the  confidence  of  the 
tribes,  the  missionary  always  succeeded  in  getting 
the  first  inkling  of  what  was  going  on  m  the  way 
of  inter-tribal  intrigues.    He  learned  to  fathom 
the  Indian  mind  and  to  perceive  the  redskin's 
motives.   He  was  thus  able  to  communicate  to 
Quebec  the  information  and  advice  which  so  often 
helped  the  French  to  outwit  their  English  rivals.  . 
As  intc  rpreters  in  the  conduct  of  negotiations  and 
the  making  of  treaties  the  Jesuits  were  also  in- 
valuable.   How  much,  indeed,  these  blackpobes 
achieved  for  the  purely  secular  mterests  of  the 
French  cdony,  fer  its  safety  from  sudden  Indian 
attack,  for  the  development  of  its  trade,  and  for 
its  general  upbuilding,  will  never  be  known.  The 
missionary  did  not  put  these  things  on  paper, 
but  he  rendered  services  which  in  all  probabihty 
were  far  greater  than  posterity  wiU  ever  realize. 


m       CRUSADERS  OF  x\EW  FRANCE 

It  was  not,  however,  with  the  convenkm  of  the 
Indians  or  with  the  service  of  French  lecular 
interests  among  the  savages  that  the  work  ol  the 
Jesuits  was  wholly,  or  even  chiefly,  ccmcemed. 
During  the  middle  years  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury,  these  services  at  the  outposts  of  French 
territory  may  have  been  most  significant,  for  the 
French  population  along  the  shores  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  remained  small,  the  settlements  were 
closely  huddled  together,  and  a  few  priests  could 
serve  their  spiritual  needs.   The  popular  impres- 
sion of  Jesuit  enterprises  in  the  New  World  is 
connected  almost  wholly  with  work  among  the 
Indians.    This  pioneer  phase  of  the  Jesuit's  work 
was  picturesque,  and  historians  have  had  a  great 
al  to  say  about  it.    It  was  likewise  of  this  service 
m  the  depths  of  the  interior  that  the  missionary 
himself  wrote  most  frequently.    But  as  the  colony 
grew  and  broadened  its  bounds  until  ite  settle- 
ments stretched  all  the  way  from  the  Saguenay  to 
Montreal  and  beyond,  a  far  larger  number  of 
curSs  was  needed.   Before  the  old  regime  came  to 
a  close  there  were  far  more  Frenchmen  than 
Indians  within  the  French  sphere  of  influence 
in  America,  and  ikey  required  by  far  the  greater 
share  of  Jesuit  ministration,  and,  long  before  the 


 -  -  -  4-      .  .. 

THE  CHURCH  IN  NEW  FRANCE  i«8 
old  (kmimion  ended,  the  Indian  missions  had  to 
take  a  subordinate  place  in  the  general  program 
of  Jcsm*t  undertakings.  The  outposts  in  the  In- 
dian country  were  the  chief  scene  of  Jesuit  labors 
from  1615  to  about  1700,  when  the  emphasis 
shifted  to  the  St.  Lawrence  valley.  Some  of  the 
mission  fields  held  their  own  to  the  end,  but  in 
general  they  failed  to  make  much  headway  during 
the  last  half-century  of  French  rule.  The  Church 
in  the  settled  portions  of  the  colony,  however, 
kept  on  with  its  steady  progress  in  achievemeiit 
and  power. 

New  France  was  the  child  of  missionaiy  fervor. 
Even  from  the  outset,  in  the  scattered  settlements 
along  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  interests  of  religion 
were  placed  on  a  ff.iictly  missionaiy  basis.  There 
were  so-called  parishes  in  the  colony  almost 
from  its  beginning,  but  not  witil  1722  was  the 
entire  colony  set  off  into  recogniied  ecclesiastical 
parishes,  each  with  a  fixed  euri  in  charge. 
Through  all  the  preceding  years  each  village  or 
cdte  had  been  served  by  a  missionary,  by  a  mov- 
able euriy  or  by  a  priest  sent  out  from  the  Semi- 
nary at  Quebec.  No  priest  was  tied  to  any  parish 
but  was  absolutely  at  the  immediate  beck  and  call 
of  the  bishop.    Some  reason  for  this  unsettled 


1«4       CRUSAi>ERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
arrangement  might  be  found  in  the  conditions 
under  which  the  colony  developed  in  its  early 
years,  with  its  sparse  popuiation  ranging  far  and 
wide,  with  iU  lack  of  churches  and  of  preshythet 
in  which  the  priest  might  reside.  But  the  real 
cxphmation  of  its  long  continuance  lies  in  the 
fact  that,  if  regular  cuHt  were  appointed,  the 
seigneurs  would  lay  claim  to  various  rights  of 
nomination  or  patronage,  whereas  the  bishop  could 
cwitrd  absolutely  the  selection  of  missionary 
priests  and  could  thus  more  easily  carry  through 
his  policy  of  ecclesiastical  centralization. 

Not  only  m  this  parUcular,  but  in  every  other 
phase  of  religious  life  and  organization  during 
these  crusading  days  in  Canada,  one  must  reckon 
not  only  with  the  logic  of  the  situation,  but  also 
with  the  dominating  personality  of  the  first  and 
greatest  Ultramontane,  Bishop  Laval.  Though 
not  himself  a  Jesuit,  for  no  member  of  the  Order 
could  be  a  bishop,  Laval  was  in  tune  with  their 
ideals  and  saw  eye  to  eye  with  the  Jesuits  on  ev-^ 
point  of  religious  and  civil  policy. 

T  ngois-Xavier  de  Laval,  Abb6  de  Montigny. 
was  bom  in  1622.  a  scion  of  the  great  house  of 
Montmorency.  He  was  thaefore  of  h^gh  nobility , 
the  best-bom  of  aU  the  many  thousands  who  came 


THE  CHURCH  IN  NEw'i^RANCE  lf5 

to  New  RMce  throughout  its  history.   As  a  youth 
he  had  come  into  dose  tuisociution  with  the 
Jeraits,  and  had  spent  four  ^  ears  in  the  famous 
Hennitage  at  Caen,  that  Jesuit  stronghold  which 
served  so  long  as  fi.e  nursery  for  the  spiritual 
pioneers  of  vurh  Canada.    When  he  came  to 
Quebec  Sis  Vicar  Apostolic  in  1659,  he  was  only 
thirty-seven  years  of  age.    His  portion  in  the 
oniony  at  the  time  of  his  arrival  was  somewhat 
unusual,  for  althoufe        was  to  hv  in  command 
of  the  colony's  spiritual  forces.  New  fkaooe  wat 
not  yet  organized  as  a  dioceK  and  eoukl  not 
be  so  organized  until  the  Pope  and  ^  m^g 
should  agree  upon  the  exact  status  of  tlie  Church 
in  the  French  colonial  dominions.   Laval  was 
nevertheless  given  his  titular  rank  htm  the  andent 
see  of  Petr«a  in  Arabia  which  hud  long  since  been 
in  partibM  i^fideUtm  and  hence  had  no  bish<^ 
withm  its  bounds.   From  his  fiwt  arrival  m 
Canwb  he  was  Buhop  Laval,  but  without  a 
diocese  ova-  which  he  could  actuaUy  hold  sway. 
His  commissicm  as  Vicar-Apostolic  gave  him 
power  enough,  however,  and  his  responsibility 
was  to  the  Pope  akme. 

For  the  tasks  which  he  was  sent  to  perform, 
Laval  had  eminent  qualifications.   A  haughty 


1«6       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

spirit  went  with  the  ultra-blue  blood  in  his  veins; 
he  had  a  temperament  that  loved  to  lead  and  to 
govern,  and  that  could  not  endure  to  yield  or 
to  lag  behind.  'His  intellectual  talents  were  high 
beyond  question,  and  to  them  he  added  the  bless- 
ing of  a  nigged  physical  frame.  No  one  ever 
came  to  a  new  land  with  more  definite  ideas  of 
what  he  wanted  to  do  or  with  a  more  unswerving 
determinati<m  to  do  it  in  his  own  way. 

It  was  not  long  hdare  the  stamp  of  Laval's  firm 
hand  was  laid  upon  the  life  of  the  colony.  In 
due  coarse,  too,  he  found  himself  at  odds  with 
the  governor.   The  dissensions  smouldered  at 
first,  and  then  broke  out  into  a  blaze  that  warmed 
the  passions  of  all  elements  in  the  colony.  The 
exact  origin  of  the  feud  is  somewhat  obscure, 
and  it  is  not  necessary  to  put  down  here  the  details 
of  its  development  to  the  war  d  outrance  which 
soon  engaged  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  authorities 
in  the  colony.   In  the  background  was  the  ques- 
tion of  the  coureurs-de-bois  and  the  liquor  trafiSc 
which  now  became  a  definite  issue  and  which 
remained  the  storm  centre  of  colonial  politics 
for  many  generations.  The  merchants  inauted 
that  if  this  traffic  were  extinguished  it  would 
involve  the  ruin  of  the  French  hold  upon  the 


TIE  CHURCH  IN  NEW  FEANCE  m 
Indian  trade.  The  bishop  and  the  priests,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  ready  to  fi^^t  the  Kquor  traffic 
to  the  end  and  to  exordse  it  as  the  greatest  blight 
upon  the  New  World.  Quebec  soon  became  a 
cockpit  where  the  battle  (rf  these  two  factions 
raged.  Each  had  its  ups  and  downs,  until  in  the 
Old  the  traffic  remained,  but  under  a  makeshift 
system  of  regulation. 

To  portray  Lavid  and  his  associates  as  always  in 
bitter  conffict  with  the  civil  power,  nevertheless, 
would  be  to  paint  a  false  picture.    Church  and 
state  were  not  normally  at  variance  in  their  views 
and  aims.    They  clashed  fiercely  on  many  occa- 
sions,  it  is  true,  but  after  their  duels  they  shook 
hands  and  went  to  work  with  a  will  at  the  task 
of  making  the  colony  stand  upon  its  own  feet 
Historians  have  magnified  these  bidcerings  out  erf 
all  proportion.    Squabbles  over  matters  of  pre- 
cedence at  ceremonies,  over  the  rate  of  the  tithes, 
and  over  the  curbing  of  the  eoureurt-de-hoit  did 
not  take  the  major  share  of  the  Church's  attentkm. 
For  the  greater  part  of  two  whole  centuries  it 
loyally  aided  the  dvil  power  In  aD  things  whocin 
the  two  could  woik  togetha  for  good. 

And  these  ways  of  assistance  were  many.  Fot 
example  the  Church,  through  its  various  mstitu* 


1«8       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
tions  and  orders,  rendered  a  great  service  to 
colonial  agriculture.    As  the  greatest  J^mipwiier 
in  New  France,  it  set  before  the  seigneurs  and  the 
habitants  an  example  of  what  intelligent  methods 
of  farming  and  hard  labor  could  accomplish  in 
making  the  land  yield  its  increase.   The  King 
was  lavish  in  his  grants  of  territory  to  the  Church: 
the  Jesuits  received  nearly  a  million  arpents 
as  their  share  of  iue  royal  bounty;  the  bishop 
and  the  Quebec  Seminary,  the  Sulpidans,  and 
the  Ursulines,  about  as  much  m<we.   Of  the  entire 
granted  acreage  <d  New  France  the  Church 
controlled  about  one-quarter,  so  that  its  position 
as  a  great  landowner  was  even  stronger  in  the 
colony  than  at  home.   Nor  did  it  fold  its  talents 
in  a  napkin.    Colonists  were  brought  from  France, 
farms  were  prepared  for  them  in  the  church  seign- 
euries,  and  the  new  settlers  were  guided  and 
encouraged  through  the  troublous  years  of  pioneer- 
ing.   With  both  money  and  brains  at  its  command, 
the  Church  was  able  to  keep  its  own  hmds  in  the 
front  line  of  agricultural  progress. 

When  in  1722  the  whole  colony  was  marked  oS 
into  definite  ecclesiastical  divisions,  seventy-two 
parishes  were  established,  and  neariy  one  hundred 
curSs  were  assigned  to  them.  As  time  weal  on. 


THE  CHURCH  IN  NEW  FRANCE  1£9 
both  parishes  and  cur^B  increaaed  m  number,  ao 
that  eveiy  locality  had  its  apiritiial  leader  who  wa» 
also  a  philosopher  and  guide  in  all  secular  matten. 
The  priest  thus  became  a  part  of  the  commu- 
nity and  never  lost  touch  with  his  people.  The 
habitant  of  New  France  for  his  part  never  neg- 
lected his  Church  on  week-days.   The  priest 
and  the  Church  were  with  him  at  work  and  at 
play,  the  spirit  and  the  life  of  every  community. 
Though  paid  a  meager  stip  nd,  the  curS  worked 
bard  and  always  proved  a  laborer  far  more  than 
worthy  of  his  hire.    The  clergy  of  New  France 
never  became  a  caste,  a  privileged  order;  they 
did  not  live  on  the  fruits  of  other  men's  labor,  but 
gave  to  the  colony  far  more  than  the  colony 
ever  gave  to  them. 

As  for  the  Church  revenues,  these  came  from 
several  sources.  The  royal  treasury  contributed 
large  sums,  but,  as  it  was  not  full  to  overflowing, 
the  King  preferred  to  give  his  benefaKstions  in' 
generous  grants  of  knd.  Yet  the  royal  lubadies 
amounted  to  mai^y  thousand  livics  each  year.  The 
diocese  of  Quebec  was  endowed  with  the  revenaei 
of  three  French  abb<^  Wealthy  laymm  in 
France  foUowed  the  royal  example  and  sent 
contributions  from  time  to  time,  frequently  <rf 


180      CRUSADERS  OP  NEW  FRANCE 

large  amount.  While  the  Company  of  One 
Hundred  Associates  controlled  the  trade  of  the 
colony,  it  made  from  its  treasury  some  provisions 
for  the  support  of  the  missionaries.  After  1663, 
a  substantial  source  of  ecclesiastical  income  was 
the  tithe,  an  ecclesiastical  tax  levied  annually 
upon  all  produce  of  the  land,  and  fixed  in  166S 
at  one-thirteenth.  Four  years  later  it  was  reduced 
to  one-twenty-sixth,  and  Bishop  Laval's  strenuous 
efforts  to  have  the  old  rate  restored  were  never 
successful. 

In  education,  yet  another  field  of  colonial  life, 
the  Church  rendered  some  service.   Here  the  civil 
autJiorities  did  nothing  at  all,  and  had  it  not  been 
for  the  Church  the  whole  cdony  would  have  grown 
up  in  absolute  illiteracy.   A  school  for  boys  was 
established  at  Quebec  in  Champlain*s  day^  and 
during  the  next  hundred  and  fifty  years  it  was 
followed  by  about  tWrty  others.    More  than  a 
dozen  elementary  schools  for  girls  were  also 
established   under  ecclesiastical   auspices.  Yet 
the  amount  of  secular  education  imparted  by  all 
these  seminaries  was  astoundingly  small,  and  they 
did  but  little  to  leaven  the  general  illiteracy  of 
the  population.    Only  the  children  of  the  towns 
attended  the  rchools,  and  the  px  jgram  of  study 


THE  CHURCH  IN  NEW  FRANCE  ISl 
was  of  the  most  elementaiy  character.  Rellgioiia 
instruction  was  given  the  first  place  and  received 
so  much  attention  that  there  was  little  time  in 
school  hours  for  anythmg  else.  The  girls  fared 
better  than  the  boys  on  the  whole,  for  the  nuns 
taught  them  to  sew  and  to  knit  as  well  as  to  read 
and  to  write. 

So  far  as  secukr  education  was  concerned, 
therdore,  the  English  conquest  found  the  colony 
in  aknost  utter  stagnation.    Not  one  in  five 
hundred  among  the  habitants,  it  was  said,  could 
read  or  write.   Outside  the  immediate  circle  of 
dergy,  officials,  and  notaries,  ignorance  of  even 
the  rudiments  of  education  was  almost  universal. 
There  were  no  newspapers  in  the  colony  and  very 
few  books  save  those  used  in  the  services  of  worship. 
Greysolon  Du  Lhut,  the  king  of  the  voyageurs, 
for  example,  was  a  man  of  means  and  education, 
but  his  entire  library,  as  disclosed  by  his  will, 
consisted  of  a  world  atlas  and  a  set  of  Josephus. 
The  priests  did  not  encourage  the  reading  of 
secular  books,  and  La  Hontan  recounts  the  troubles 
which  he  had  in  keeping  one  militant  euri  from 
tearing  his  precious  volumes  to  pieces.  New 
France  was  at  that  period  not  a  land  where  fcw- 
dom  dwdt  with  knowledge. 


f 

13«       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

InteUectually,  the  people  rf  Xew  France  com. 
prised  on  the  one  hand  a  smaU  61ite  and  on  the 
other  a  great  unlettered  mass.    There  was  no 
middle  class  between.    Yet  the  population  of  the 
colony  always  contained,  especially  among  iU 
officials  and  clergy,  a  sprinkling  of  educated  and 
scholarly  men.    These  have  given  us  a  literature 
of  travel  and  description  which  is  extensive  and 
of  high  quality.    No  other  American  colony  of 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  put  so 
much  of  its  annals  into  print;  the  lUUOums  of  the 
Jesuits  alone  were  sufficient  to  fiO  forty-ooe  vol- 
umes, and  they  form  but  a  small  part  of  the  entire 
literary  output. 


CHAPTER  Vm 


BDCOVEUBS  OF  OU>  CANADA 

Pbom  the  beginning  of  the  colony  there  ran  in  the 
minds  of  French  officialdoni  the  idea  that  the  social 
order  should  rest  upon  a  setgneurial  basis.  His- 
torians have  commonly  attributed  to  Bacheiieu 
the  genesis  of  New  World  feudalism,  but  witlumt 
good  reason,  for  its  beginnings  antedated  the  time 
of  the  great  minister.   The  charter  inoed  to  the 
iU-starred  La  Roche  in  1598  empowered  him  "to 
grant  Unds  to  gentlemen  in  the  f onns  of  fiefs  and' 
seigneuries,"  and  the  different  viceroys  who. 
bad  titular  charge  of  the  colony  before  the  Com- 
pany of  One  Hundred  Associates  took  charge  in 
1827  had  similar  powers.   Several  seigneurial 
grants  in  the  region  of  Quebec  had,  in  fact,  been 
made  bef<»e  Richelieu  first  turned  his  attention 
to  the  edony. 

Nor  was  the  adoption  of  this  policy  at  all 

mmaturaL  '  Despite  its  increasing  obsolescence 

188  ' 


184       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
the  se^sneurial  syttem  was  stiU  strong  in  France 
and  dominated  the  greater  part  of  the  kingdom. 
The  nobihty  and  even  the  throne  rested  upon  it. 
ZThe  Church,  as  suzerain  of  enormous  landed 
estates,  sanctioned  and  supported  it. ,  The  masses 
of  the  French  people  were  familiar  with  no  other 
system  of  landholding.    No  prolonged  quest  need 
accordingly  be  made  to  explain  why  France 
transplanted  feudalism  to  the  shores  of  the  great 
Canadian   waterway;  in  fact,   an  explanation 
would  have  been  demanded  had  any  other  policy 
been  considered.   No  one  asks  why  the  Puritans 
took  to  Massachusetts  Bay  the  English  system 
of  freehold  tenure.    They  took  the  common  law 
of  England  and  the  tenure  that  went  with  it. 
Along  with  the  fleur-de-lis,  likewise,  went  the 
Custom  of  Paris  and  the  whole  networic  of  social 
relations  based  upon  a  hierarchy  of  seigneura  and 
dependents. 

The  seigneurial  system  of  hmd  tenure,  as  aU 
students  of  history  know,  was  feudalism  in  a 
somewhat  modernized  form.  During  the  chaos 
which  came  upon  Western  Europe  in  tiie  centuries 
foUowing  the  coUapse  of  Roman  imperial  suprem- 
acy, every  local  magnate  found  himself  forced 
to  depend  for  existence  upon  the  strength  of  his 


?Xo...-  s'  »     c  V 


J 


SEIGNEURS  OF  OLD  CANADA  I85 
own  cagtle,  under  whow  walk  he  gathered  as  many 
vassals  as  he  could  induce  to  come.    To  these  he 
gave  the  surrounding  lands  free  from  all  rents,  but 
on  condition  of  aid  in  time  of  war.    The  lord  gave 
the  knd  and  promised  to  protect  his  vassals,  who, 
on  then-  part,  took  the  land  and  promised  to  pay 
for  it  not  in  money  or  in  kind,  but  in  loyalty  and 
service.    Thus  there  was  created  a  close  personal 
relation,  a  bond  of  mutual  wardship  and  fidelity 
which  bound  liegeman  and  lord  with  hoops  of 
steel.   The  whole  social  order  rested  upon  this 
bond  and  upon  the  gradations  in  privilege  which  it 
involved  in  a  sequence  which  became  stereotyped. 
In  its  day  feudalism  was  a  great  institution  and 
one  which  shared  with  the  Christian  Church 
the  glory  of  having  made  medi«va]  life  at  aU 
worth  living.  It  hdped  to  keep  dviliMticm  from 
perishing  utterly  in  a  whiri  ot  anarchy,  and  it 
enabled  Europe  to  recovw  inch  by  indi  its  former 
state  of  order,  stability,  and  law. 

But,  having  done  its  service  to  humanity,  feudal- 
ism did  not  ^etly  make  way  for  some  other 
^ystan  more  suited  to  the  new  conditions.  It 
hung  on  grimly  long  after  the  forces  which  had 
brought  it  into  being  ceased  to  exist,  long  after  the 
«rowth  of  a  strong  monarchy  in  Prance  with  a 


[  c 

136       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
powerful  standing  army  had  removed  the  neceauty 
of  mutual  guardianship  and  service.   To  meet  the 
new  conditions  the  system  merely  changed  its 
incidents,  never  its  general  form.   The  aocioit 
obligation  of  military  service,  no  longer  needed, 
gave  place  to  dues  and  payments.   The  old 
personal  bond  relaxed;  the  feudal  lord  became 
the  seigneur,  a  mere  landlord.   The  vassal  became 
the  centiUare,  a  mere  tenant,  paying  heavy  dues 
each  year  in  return  for  protection  which  he  no 
longw  received  nor  required.  In  a  word,  before 
1600  the  feudal  system  had  become  the  seigneurial 
system,  and  it  was  the  latter  which  was  established 
in  the  Froich  colony  of  Canada. 

In  the  new  land  there  was  reason  to  hope,  how- 
ever, that  this  system  of  social  relations  based 
upon  landholding  would  soon  work  its  way  back 
to  the  vigor  which  it  had  displayed  in  mediseval 
days.  Here  in  the  midst  of  an  unfathomed  wilder- 
ness was  a  small  European  settlement  with  hostile 
tribes  on  every  hand.  The  royal  arm,  so  strong 
in  affording  protection  at  home,  could  not  strike 
hard  and  promptly  in  behalf  of  subjects  a  thou- 
sand leagues  away.  New  France,  accordingly 
must  organize  itself  for  defense  and  repel  her 
enemies  just  as  the  earldcnns  and  duchies  of  the 


BEIGNECBS  OF  OLD  CANADA  W 

•nisading  centuries  lud  done.  And  tliirt  is  just 
what  the  colooy  did,  with  the  leigneuria]  system 
the  groondworiL  of  defensive  strength.  Under 
of  the  new  envuxmment,  which  was  not 
wholly  unlike  that  of  the  former  feudal  days,  the 
mffitaiy  aspects  of  the  system  revived  and  the 
personal  bond  regained  much  of  its  ancient  vigor. 
The  sordid  phases  of  seigneurialism  dropped  into 
the  background.   It  was  this  restored  vitality 
that  helped,  more  than  all  else,  to  turn  New 
France  into  a  huge  armed  camp  which  hordes  of 
invaders,  both  white  and  red,  strove  vainly  to 
pierce  time  after  time  during  more  than  a  fuU 
century. 

The  first  grant  of  a  seigneury  in  the  territory  of 
New  France  was  made  in  162S  to  Louis  Hubert, 
a  Paris  apothecary  who  had  come  to  Qndbec 
with  Champlain  some  years  before  this  date. 
His  land  consisted  of  a  tract  upon  the  hei^t 
above  the  settlement,  and  here  he  had  cleared  the 
fields     >  i  built  a  home  for  himsei;    By  this 
indenture  feudalism  cast  iU  first  andior  in  New 
Ranoe,  and  Hubert  became  the  colony's  first 
patron  of  husbandry.  Other  grants  soon  fdlowed, 
particularly  during  the  yean  when  the  Oanpany  of 
One  Hundred  Associates  was  in  control  of  the 


WB  CRtSADERS  OP  NEW  FRXNCE 
laad,  for,  by  the  terms  of  ite  charter,  this 
zation  was  empowered  to  grant  Uagt  tracts  at 
seigneuries  and  also  to  iMue  patents  at  adb^. 
It  vv  as  doubtless  .issumed  by  the  g«i»f  Hiat  such 
grants  would  be  made  only  to  penoiu  who  would 
ucH)  >Mv  emigrate  to  New  France  and  who  woold 
thus  help  in  the  upbuilding  of  the  oobny,  bat  Ae 
Con^ny  did  not  live  iq>  to  tias  poBcy.  Instead, 
it  made  lavish  donatioiu,  some  of  them  contuning 
a  hundred  aqume  mSka  or  more,  to  directors  and 

fnemb  of  the  Con^HQr  in  Fnnee  who  neither  came 
to  the  cdoii^  ^emarives  nor  sent  representatives  to 

undertake  ^dearaf  of  t^kfgee^tes.  e 
director  took  ife  ei^  Uaad  of  Orieans;  other, 
■ecured  geaereus  dices  of  .  the  best  lands  on  b*  h 
shores  (rf  the  St.  LaTOoce;  but  not  one  .f  th.  a 
lifted  a  finger  in  the  way  of  redeeming  th   e  huge 
concessions  hma  a  state  of  wilde?     ^  t>  il 
The  tracts  woe  merely  held  in  the  ii   >e  mxe 
day  they  would  become  valuable.     >^  fxty 
seigneuries  which  wer  granted  b\     le  Coi 
during  the  years  from  1632  u,  i66;>  n  '  more  ti.^ 
half-dozen  grants  were  inad(  to  bona    h  -oloni  is. 
At  the  latter  date  ti  e  total  area  of    .eared  i^iud 
was  scarcely  four  thou  arpenU. 
'  An  arfnit  mm  abwA  five-fatbs  «f  as  aoc 


«ON£UBS  OF  OLD  CANADA  m 
fc^al  aetioD  ol  IMS  which  took  the 
coieiiy  horn  the  Company  and  reconstructed  iu 
SOV^mawBt,  the  aeigneurial  system  was  galvanized 
at  once  with  new  energy.  The  uncleared  tracts 
•rhich  the^V^.  4  the  Compaay  had  carved  out 
4irJong  theiniei  es  were  declared  ♦o  be  forfeitt.4 
toiheC  mar  actual  occupam  as  held  to  be, 
for  the  fn-  re      e  e.«^ential  of        y  seigneuriaJ 

iS  <    •rt  was  made  to  obtain 
set        and  wua  cons,   erable  success,  for  in  the 
yea     ifr  ^-1667  the  populatioi    of  the  colony 
m      than  doubled.   Nothing  was  left  undone 
b  the  royal  authorities  in  securing  ^  traasport- 
iai  emigrants.   Officials  from  J    h  scoured  the 
i'lces.  offering  free  passage        «iebec  and 
tnts  of  land  upon  arrive     The  cam- 
a  was  successful,  and  many  nhiiJ^tHfa  q| 
excellent  colonists,  most  of  them  hardy  p^^tnnti 
from  Normandy,  Brittany,  Perche,  and  FSean^, 
were  sent  during  these  banner  years. 
On  then-  arrival  at  QMbec  the  tnocnning  settlen 
taken  in  hand  by  officials  aad  woe  turned 
wet  to  the  various  a&goem  who  were  ready  to 
iwovide  them  with  huids  and  to  hdp  th«n  in 
gettmg  wdl  started.   If  the  newcomer  happened 
to  be  a  man  ci  aome  account  at  home,;;and  particu- 


140  CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
larly  if  he  brought  some  money  with  him,  he  had 
the  opportwiity  to  become  a  seigneur  himadf. 
He  merely  applied  to  the  intendant,  who  was 
quite  willing  to  endow  with  a  se^gnemy  any  one 
who  appeared  likely  to  get  it  cleared  and  ready  for 
future  settlers.  In  this  matter  the  officials,  follow- 
ing out  the  spirit  of  the  royal  orders,  were  prone 
to  err  <m  the  side  of  libmdity.  Too  often  they 
gave  large  sdgneurial  grants  to  men  who  had 
neither  the  eneigy  mat  the  funds  to  do  what  was 
^sxpectdd  of  a  seigneur  in  the  new  land. 

As  U«  extant,  the  seigneuries  varied  greatly. 
Same  were  as  large  as  a  European  dukedom ;  others 
contained  only  a  few  thousand  arpents.  There 
was  no  fixed  rule;  within  reasonable  limits  each 
applicant  obtained  what  he  asked  for,  but  it 
was  generally  understood  that  men  who  had  been 
members  of  the  French  noblesse  before  coming 
to  the  colony  were  entitled  to  larger  areas  than 
those  who  were  not.  In  any  case  little  attention 
was  paid  to  exact  boundaries,  and  no  surveys 
were  made.  In  making  his  request  for  a  seigneury 
each  applicant  set  forth  what  he  wanted,  and  this 
he  frequently  did  in  such  broad  terms  as,  "all  lands 
between  such-and-such  a  river  and  the  seigneury 
of  the  Sieur  de  So-and-So."  These  deaa^tioDi, 


SEIGNEURS  OF  OLD  CANADA  Ml 
rarely  adequate  or  aocunite,  were  copied  mto  flie 
patent,  causing  often  hopeleM  ooaloaiQii  of  bound- 
aries and  mmei^Bhoify  aqoabUei.  It  was  fortu- 
nate that  most  seigneun  had  more  land  than  they 
could  use;  otlierwise  theie  would  have  been  as 
many  lawsuits  as  seigneuries. 

The  obUgatkms  in^NMed  upon  the  seigneurs 
w«e  not  burdensome.   No  initial  payment  was 
asked,  and  there  were  no  annual  rentals  to  be 
paid  to  the  Crown.  .Each  seigneur  had  to  render 
tiie  ceremony  of  fealty  and  homage  to  the  royal 
representative  at  Quebec. '  Each  was  liable  for 
military  service,  although  that  obligation  was  not 
written  into  the  grant.    When  a  seigneury  changed 
owners  otherwise  than  by  inheritance  in  direct 
succession,  a  payment  known  as  the  quint  (being, 
as  the  name  connotes,  one-fifth  of  the  r^rted 
value)  became  payable  to  the  royal  treasury* 
but  this  was  rarely  collected.    The  most  imporw 
tant  obligation  imposed  upon  the  Canadian  seign- 
eur, and  one  which  did  not  exist  at  all  in  Fiance, 
was  that  of  getting  settlers  established  tqion  his 
lands.   This  obligation  the  authcmties  {"fiftffd 
upmi  above  all  othen.  iThe  Canadian  adigDear 
was  expected  to  live  on  his  doinain.^to  gather 
dq>endent8  around  hnn,'\o  build  a  BdB  lor  grinding 


14»  CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
their  grain,  to  have  them  level  the  forest,  clear  the 
fields,  and  make  two  blades  of  grass  grow  where 
one  grew  before.  In  other  words,  the  Canadian 
seigneur  was  to  be  a  royal  immigration  and  land 
agent  combined.  He  was  not  given  his  generoiw 
landed  patrimony  in  order  that  he  should  sit 
idly  by  and  wait  for  the  unearned  increment  to 
come. 

Many  of  the  seigneurs  fulfilled  this  trust  to  the 
letter.   Robert  GiflFard,  who  received  the  s^- 
euiy  of  Beauport  just  bdow  Quebec,  was  one  of 
these;  Chailes  Le  Moync,  Sieur  de  Longueuil. 
waa  another.  Both  brought  many  settlers  from 
Ranee  and  saw  than  safdy  throu^  the  years  of 
IH<»ueriDg.   Otheis,  however,  did  no  more  than 
flock  to  Qoebee  when  ships  were  expected,  like 
»o  many  real  esUte  agents  explainmg  to  the  new 
Mrivab  what  they  had  to  offer  in  the  way  of 
lands  fertile  and  weU  situated.    StUl  others  did 
iK>t  even  do  so  much,  but  merely  put  forth  one 
excuse  after  another  to  explain  why  their  tracU 
remained  without  settlements  at  aU.   From  time 
to  time  the  authorities  prodded  these  seigneurial 
drones  and  threatened  them  with  the  forfeitiu* 
of  their  estates;  but  some  of  the  laggards  had 
friends  among  the  memben  of  the  Soverejgii 


SEIGNEUBS  OF  OLD  CANADA  148 
Counca  or  poesesKd  other  means  <rf  warding  off 
•ctkm.  so  that  final  decrees  of  f orefeiture  were 
rawJy  issued.   OccasionaUy  there  were  seigneurs 
whose  estates  were  so  favorably  situated  that  they 
could  exact  a  bonus  from  intending  settlers,  but 
the  Kmg  very  soon  put  a  stop  to  this  practice. 
By  the  Arrets  of  Marly  in  1711  he  decreed  that  no 
bonus  or  prix  d^entrie  should  be  exacted  by  any 
seigneur,  but  that  every  settler  was  to  have  land 
for  tJie  asking  and  at  the  rate  of  the  annual  dues 
customary  in  the  neighborhood. 

At  this  date  there  were  some  ninety  seigneuries 
m  the  colony,  about  which  we  have  considerable 
mformation  owing  to  a  careful  surv^  which  was 
mad.  in  1712  at  the  King's  request.    This  woik 
was  entrusted  to  an  engineer.  Ged^on  de  Catalogne. 
who  had  come  to  Quebec  a  quarter  of  a  century' 
earlier  to  help  with  the  fortifications.  Catalogae 
spent  two  years  in  his  survey,  during  which 
time  he  visited  practically  all  the  colonial  estatea. 
As  a  result  he  prqwred  and  sent  to  IVaace  a  fuH 
report  giving  in  e^dicase  the  locaticm  and  extent 

of  the  seigncury.  the  name  «rf  its  owner,  the  nature 
«rf  the  foil,  and  its  suitability  for  various  uses, 
the  ^oducts.  the  pofnilatioii.  the  condition  of  the 
people,  the  provisioiis  made  for  religious  instruc- 


144       CRUSADERS  OP  NEW  FRANCE 
tion,  and  various  other  matters. »   With  tbe  nport 
he  sent  three  maps,  one  of  which  has  disappeared. 
The  others  show  the  location  of  all  seipieuries  in 
the  r^ons  of  Quebec  and  Three  Biveis. 

From  Catalogpe's  survey  we  know  that  before 
1712  nearly  all  the  territory  on  both  shores  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  from  bdow  Qudbec  to  above  Mont- 
real had  been  parceled  into  seigneuries.  Likewise 
the  islands  in  the  river  and  the  land  on  both  ades 
of  the  Richelieu  in  the  r^^  toward  Lake  Cham- 
plain  had  been  aUotted.  Many  at  the  adigneuriea 
in  this  latter  belt  had  been  given  to  officm  of  the 
Carignan-Sali^res  regiment  which  had  come  out 
with  Tra«gr  in  1685  to  chastise  the  Mohawks. 
After  the  woric  of  the  regiment  had  been  finished. 
Talon  suggested  to  the  King  that  it  be  disbanded 
in  Canada,  that  the  officers  be  persuaded  to  accept 
seigneuries,  and  that  the  soldiers  be  given  lands 
within  the  estates  of  their  officers.    The  Grand 
Monarque  not  only  assented  but  promised  a  liberal 
money  bonus  to  all  who  would  remain.  Accord- 
ingly, more  than  twenty  officers,  chiefly  captains 
or  lieutenants,  and  nearly  four  hundred  men, 

*This  report  was  printed  for  the  fint  time  in  the  •uthor'e 
Doeumenit  relating  to  Um  BtitHiaHd  Tmm»  im  Cmaia  (IVKtwtot 
Tlw  fawmphiii  Sodalgr.  ISM). 


SEIGNEURS  OF  OLD  CANADA  14^ 

agreed  to  stay  in  New  Fraooe  under  these  ar- 
rangements. 

Here  was  an  expoiment  in  the  system  of  im- 
perial Rome  repeated  in  the  New  World.  When 
the  anpire  of  the  Caesars  was  beginning  to  give 
way  before  ^he  oncoming  Goths  and  Huns,  the 
practice  of  disbanding  the  legions  on  the  frontier 
so  that  they  might  settle  there  and  form  an  iron 
ring  against  the  invaders  was  adopted  and  served 
its  purpose  for  a  time.    It  was  from  these  prcedia 
militaria  that  Talon  got  the  idea  which  he  now 
transmitted  to  the  French  King  with  the  sugges- 
tion that  "the  practice  of  these  sagacious  and  war- 
like Romans  might  be  advantageously  followed 
in  a  land  which,  bemg  so  far  away  from  its  sover- 
eign, must  trust  for  existence  to  the  strength  of  its 
own  arms. "   In  keeping  with  the  same  precedent. 
Talon  located  the  military  seigneuiies  in  that 
section  of  the  colony  where  th^  would  be  most 
useful  as  a  barrier  against  the  enemy;  that  is  to 
say,  he  placed  them  in  the  cokmy's  most  vuhier- 
able  region.   This  was  the  area  along  the  Riche- 
lieu from  Lake  Champlain  to  its  Gonflu<»ice  with 
the  St.  Lawrence  at  Sold.   It  was  by  this  route 
that  the  Mohawks  had  already  come  more  than 
once  on  thdr  mands  of  massacre,  and  it  was  by 


146       CRUSADEBS  OF  NEW  PRANCE 

this  portal  that  the  English  were  likely  to  come 
if  they  should  ever  attempt  to  overwhehn  New 
France  by  an  overland  assault.  The  region  of  the 
Richelieu  was  therefore  made  m  strong  against 
incursion  «s  M  i  iiliiiiHi^g  mtmme  eould  make 
it. 

All  who  took  lands  in  this  region*  whether 
sdgneiffs  or  habitants,  were  to  assemble  in  mmm  at 
the  Toywl  cidl.  Thdr  uniforms  and  nmskeli  tey 
hept  for  servH»,  and  nevor  duriog  subsequent 
years  was  such  a  call  without  reqMinse.  Thesemil- 
itaiy  settlers  and  th«r  sons  after  them  were  only 
too  ready  to  rally  around  the  royal  orifUmme  at  any 
oppcnrtunity.  It  was  from  the  armed  seigneuries 
of  the  Bichdieu  that  Hertel  de  Bouville,  St.  Ours, 
and  others  quietly  slipped  forth  and  leaped  with 
all  the  advantage  of  surprise  upon  the  lonely  ham- 
kts  of  outlying  Massachusetts  or  New  York.  How 
the  English  feared  these  gentUshommes  let  their 
own  records  tell,  for  there  these  French  colonials 
put  many  a  streak  of  blood  and  fire. 

But  not  all  of  the  seigneuries  were  settled  in  this 
way,  and  it  was  well  for  the  best  interests  of  the 
colony  that  they  were  not.  Too  often  the  good 
soldier  made  only  an  indifferent  yeoman.  First  in 
war,  he  was  last  in  peace.    The  task  of  hammer- 


SEIGNEURS  OF  OLD  CANADA  147 
mg  spears  into  ploui^isIiaKs  and  swordi  into 
pnining-hooks  was  not  altogether  to  his  likiog. 
Most  of  the  officers  gradually  grew  t»^  J  their 
Tdle  as  gentlemen  of  the  wilderness,  and  .  entu- 
ally  sold  <»  mortgaged  their  seigneuries  and  made 
thdr  way  bade  to  Prance.  Many  of  the  soldiers 
succumbed  to  the  lure  of  the  western  fur  traffic 
and  became  eoureur»-de'bois.  But  many  others 
stuck  valiant^  to  the  soil,  and  today  their  de- 
scoidants  by  the  thousand  possess  this  fertile 
land. 

What  were  the  obligations  of  the  settler  who 
todc  a  grant  of  land  within  a  seigneury?   On  the 
whole  they  were  neither  numerous  nor  burden- 
some, and  in  no  sense  were  they  comparable 
with  those  laid  upon  the  hapless  peasantry  in 
France  during  the  days  before  the  great  Revolu- 
tion.  Every  habitant  had  a  written  title-deed 
from  his  seigneur  and  the  terms  of  this  deed  were 
explicit.    The  seigneiu-  could  exact  nothing  that 
was  not  stipulated  therein.   These  titte^ieeds 
were  made  by  the  notaries,  of  whom  there  seem  to 
have  been  plenty  in  New  France;  the  census  of 
1681  listed  no  fewer  than  twenty-foor  d  tto 
in  a  population  whidi  had  not  yet  itmAted  tea 
thousand.   When  the  deed  had  been  signed,  the 


148  CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
notary  gave  one  copy  to  each  of  the  parties;  the 
original  he  kept  himself.  These  scribes  were  men 
of  limited  education  and  did  not  always  do  their 
work  with  proper  care,  but  on  the  whole  they  ren- 
dered useful  service. 

The  deed  first  set  forth  the  situation  and  ana 
of  the  habitant's  farm.   The  ordinaiy  extent 
was  from  one  hundred  to  four  hundied  arpenti, 
usuaUy  in  the  shape  of  a  paraUek«ram  with  a 
narrow  frontage  on  the  river,  and  actcDding  inland 
to  a  much  greater  distance.   Every  one  wanted 
to  be  near  the  main  road  whidi  ima  akng  the 
shore;  it  was  only  altar  all  this  land  had  ieen  takm 
up  that  the  incoming  setOers  woe  willing  to  have 
farms  in  the  "second  ran^"  on  the  uphnds  away 
from  the  stream./ At  any  rate,  the  haUtant  took 
hiF  knd  subject  to  yeariy  paymmts  known  as  the 
cent  A  raae$.   The  amount  was  small,  a  few  sous 
together  with  a  stated  donation  in  grain  or  poultry 
to  be  ddivered  each  autunm.   Reckoned  in  terms 
of  present-day  roitals,  the  cens  et  rentes  amounted 
to  half  a  doaen  chickens  or  a  bu.-hel  of  grain  for 
each  fifty  or  sixty  acres  of  land.    Yet  this  was  the 
only  payment  which  the  habitants  of  New  France 
regularly  made  in  return  for  their  lands.  Each 
autumn  at  Michaelmas  they  gathered  at  the 


SEIGNEUBS  OF  OLD  CANADA  149 

seigneur's  lioiise,  thev  canyallt  fining  liis  yard. 

One  by  OM  tliey  handed  <nr»  tlidr  quote  <rf  gnun 
or  pouHiy  and  counted  out  their  emt  in  copper 
cobg.  The  oocaoon  became  a  neighborhood 
festival  to  whidi  the  women  came  with  the  men. 
There  was  a  general  retailing  of  local  gossip  and 
a  squaring-up  of  accounts  among  the  neighbors 
themselves. 

But  while  this  was  the  only  regular  payment 
made  by  the  habitant,  it  was  not  the  only  obli- 
gation imposed  upon  him.   In  New  Prance  the 
seigneur  had  the  exclusive  right  of  grinding  all 
grain,  and  the  habitants  were  bound  by  their 
title-deeds  to  bring  their  grist  to  his  mill  and  to 
pay  the  legal  toll  for  milling.    This  banaliiS,  as  it 
was  called,  did  not  bear  heavily  upon  the  pec^; 
most  of  the  complaints  concerning  it  came  rather 
from  the  seigneurs  who  claimed  that  the  kgal  toll, 
which  amounted  to  one-fourteenth  of  the  grain.' 
did  not  suffice  to  pay  expenses.   Some  of  the 
seigneurs  did  not  build  mills  at  aU,  but  the  authori- 
ties eventually  moved  them  to  aeOaa  by  ordermg 
that  those  who  did  not  provide  miQs  at  once  would 
not  be  allowed  to  «i£orce  the  obl^gaticm  (tf  tdQ  at 
any  future  date.  Mostof  the  s^gneuiialmiBs  were 
crude,  wmd-driven  affairs  which  made  poor  fionr 


MO       CRUSADERS  OP  NEW  FRANCE 
and  often  kept  the  habitants  waiting  for  days  to 
get  it.    UsuaUy  built  in  tower-like  fashion,  they 
were  loopholed  m  order  to  afford  places  of  lefuge 
and  defense  against  Indian  attack. 

Another  seigneurial  obligation  was  that  <rf  giving 
to  the  seigneur  certain  days  of  eonie,  or  fenced 
labor,  in  each  year.  In  Prance  this  was  a  grievous 
burden;  peasants  were  taken  from  their  own 
hmds  at  inconvenient  seasons  and  f oiced  to  work 
for  weeks  on  the  seigneur's  domain.  But  there 
was  nothmg  of  this  sort  in  Canada.  The  amount 

I>n»ited  to  MK  day^  at  the  most  in  any 
year,  of  which  only  two  days  could  be  adced 
for  at  seed-time  and  two  days  at  harvest.  The 
seigneur,  for  his  part,  did  not  usuaUy  exact  even 
this  amount,  because  the  neighborhood  custom 
requhed  that  he  should  furnish  both  food  and 
tools  to  those  whom  he  called  upon  to  work  for 
him. 

Besides,  there  were  various  details  of  a  minor 
sort  mcidental  to  the  seigneurial  system.  If  the 
habitant  caught  fish  in  the  river,  one  fish  in  every 
eleven  belonged  to  the  seigneur.  But  seldom  was 
any  attention  paid  to  this  stipulation.  The 
seigneur  was  entitled  to  take  firewood  and  build- 
ing materials  from  the  lands  of  his  habitants  if  he 


SEIGNEUBS  OF  OLD  CANADA  151 
I,  but  he  rar^  Availed  liimsdf  of  this  right. 
On  the  monuog  oi  every  May  Day  the  habitants 
were  under  strict  injunction  to  plant  a  Maypole 
before  the  seigneur's  house,  and  this  they  never 
failed  to  do,  because  the  seigneur  in  return  was 
expected  to  dispense  hospitality  to  all  who  came. 
Bright  and  eariy  in  the  morning  the  whole  com- 
munity appeared  and  greeted  the  seigneur  with  a 
salvo  of  blank  musketry.    With  them  they  carried 
a  tall  fir-tree,  pulled  bare  to  within  a  few  feet  of 
the  top  where  a  tuft  of  green  remained.  Having 
planted  this  Maypole  in  the  ground,  they  joined 
in  dancing  and  a  feu  de  jaie  in  the  seigneur's 
honor,  and  then  adjourned  for  cakes  and  wine  at 
his  table.    There  is  no  doubt  that  such  good 
things  disappeared  with  celerity  before  appetitea 
whetted  by  an  hour's  exercise  in  the  dear  s^mg 
air.   After  drinking  to  the  sdgneur's  health  and 
to  the  health  of  aU  his  kin,  the  meny  coo^my 
returned  to  their  homes,  leaving  behmd  than  the 
pole  as  a  souvenh-  of  their  homage.   That  the 
seigneur  was  m<»e  than  a  mere  huHlhmi  such  an 
oocadon  testified. 

The  S(4g!^un  tsi  New  France  had  the  right  to 
hdd  courts  for  the  settlement  of  disputes  among 
thdr  tenantry,  but  they  fare^  availed  themselves 


ISi       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

of  this  privilege  because,  owing  to  the  spaneneas 
of  the  population  in  most  of  the  seigneurici,  the 
fines  and  fees  did  not  produce  enough  income  to 
nuilEe  such  a  procedure  worth  while.  In  a  few 
populous  districts  there  wcfe  seigneurial  eoorts 
with  regular  judges  who  held  sesnons  once  or 
twice  each  week.  In  some  others  the  seigneur 
himself  sat  in  judgmoit  bdiind  the  living-room 
table  hi  his  own  hinne  and  meted  oat  justice  alter 
his  own  fashion.  The  Custom  of  Paris  was 
tkm  common  kw  of  the  Umd.  and  afl  were  sup- 
posed to  know  its  piovisioos,  tho^  lew  save 
tt  ioyal  judges  had  any  such  knowledge.  When 
the  srlgnfur  himself  heard  the  suitors,  his  decision 
was  not  always  in  keeping  with  the  law  but  it 
usually  satisfied  the  disputants,  so  that  appeals 
to  the  royal  courts  were  not  common.  These 
latter  tribunals,  each  with  a  judge  of  its  own,  sat 
at  Quebec,  Three  Rivers,  and  Montreal.  Their 
procedure,  like  that  of  the  seigneurial  courts, 
was  simple,  free  from  chicane,  and  inexpensive. 
A  lawsuit  in  New  France  did  not  bring  ruinous 
costs.    "I  will  not  say, "  remarks  the  facetious  La 
Hontan,  "that  the  Goddess      Justice  is  more 
chaste  here  than  in  France,  but  at  any  rale,  if  A» 
is  sold,  she  is  sold  more  cheaply.   In  Canada  we 


SEIGNEUBS  OF  OLD  CANADA  US 
do  not  pin  tluomgii  tbe  dittdiei  of  advoestei, 
tbe  telont  of  aUomcyi,  utd  the  cUws  of  derka. 

These  ▼mis  do  not  aiyvtinfcit  the  land.  Every 
one  here  plwds  his  own  cause.  Our  Themis  is 
I»Oinpt.  and  she  does  not  bristle  with  fees,  costs, 
and  charges." 

Throughout  the  FrtSDch  period  there  was  no 
oompiaint  kom  the  habitants  concerning  the 
burdens  of  the  seigneurial  tenure.   Here  and 
there  disputes  arose  as  to  the  exact  scope  and 
nature  of  various  obligations,  but  these  the  intend- 
ant  adjusted  with  a  firm  hand  and  an  eye  to  the 
general  interest.    On  the  whole,  the  system  rend- 
ered a  highly  ^  se'  il  service,  by  bringing  the  entirt 
rural  population ;        close  and  neighborly  con. 
tact,  by  affordiuK   ii-m  foundation  for  fhe  colony's 
social  structure,  and  by  contrio^fia^^  gieat^y 
to  the  defensive  unity  of  New  France./.  So  kmg 
as  the  land  was  weak  and  depended  for  its  very 
existence  upon  the  s ;  lidarity  <^  its  peo|>le,\o  limg 
as  the  intendant  was  there  to  gnide  the  system  wfth 
a  pnetorian  hand  and  to  prevent  dbases»^so  kmg 
as  strength  was  n»ie  to  be  demd  than  opdowe, 
the  seigneorial  ^rrtem  served  New  fhmoe  brtter 
than  any  other  sdieme  of  l«i*«»^JiHiy  would 
have  dcHie.  U  was  only  when  the  aAni^i,^^ 


IM      CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

of  the  country  came  into  new  and  alien  hands 
that  Canadian  seigneurialism  became  a  barrier  to 
economic  progress  and  an  obsolete  system  which 
had  to  be  abolished. 


;  P 

J  ( 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  COUREURS-DE-BOIS 

Thb  center  and  soul  of  the  economic  system  in 
New  France  was  the  traffic  in  furs.   Even  before 
the  colony  contained  more  than  a  handful  of 
settlers,  the  profit-making  possibilities  of  this 
trade  were  recognized.    It  grew  rapidly  even  in  the 
early  days,  and  for  more  than  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  furnished  New  France  with  its  sinews 
of  war  and  peace.    Beginnmg  on  the  St.  Lawrence, 
this  trade  moved  westward  along  the  Great  Lakes, 
until  toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century 
it  passed  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Mississippi. 
During  the  two  administrations  of  Frcmtenac  the 
fur  traffic  grew  to  large  proportions,  nor  did  it 
show  much  sign  of  shrinking  for  a  goumtkn 
thereafter.   With  the  ebb-tide  of  Frendi  militaiy 
power,  however,  the  trader's  hold  on  these  wwtets 
lands  began  to  rdax,  and  before  the  final  overthroir 
of  N«w  France  it  had  becxaae  grtaltfy  weakened. 


IW       CRUSADERS  OP  NEW  FRANCE 

In  establishing  commercial  relations  witk  the 
Indians,  the  French  voyageur  on  the  St.  Lawr^ 
had  several  marked  advantages  <ym  Ma  Ri^iiph 
and  Dutch  neighbors    By  temperament  he  was 
better  adapted  than  they  to  be  a  pioneer  of  tndt. 
No  race  was  more  supple  ihan  his  own  m  conionn. 
ing  its  ways  to  the  varied  damnds  ci  ^kee  and 
time.   When  he  was  among  the  Indians,  the 
Frenchman  tried  to  act  like  one  of  them,  and  he 
soon  developed  in  aU  the  arts  of  forest  Ufe  a  ddU 
which  rivaled  that  of  the  Indian  himself.  The 
fascination  erf  We  in  the  imtamed  wilderness  with 
its  hair-raising  eipenenoes,  its  romance,  iu  free 
abandon,  af^ealed  more  strongly  to  the  French 
temperament  than  to  that  of  any  other  European 
race.  NmWsHowmibmmdireCtmnthum.  And  the 
Fwmdi  cobttrt  of  the  seventeenth  century  had 
the  qualities  irf  personal  courage  and  hardihood 
»Wch  cmabled  him  to  enjoy  this  life  to  the 
stmost. 

Then  there  was  the  Jesuit  missionary.  He 
was  the  first  to  visit  the  Indians  in  their  own 
abodes,  the  first  to  make  his  home  among  them, 
the  first  to  master  their  language  and  to  under- 
stand their  habits  of  mind.  This  sympathetic 
comprehensiou  gave  the  Jesuit  a  great  ii 


THE  CX)UB]»JBS.DE.BOIS  157 
in  tin  couscai  of  tlie  savages,  mile  first  of 
aM  ft  soldier  of  tbe  Oess,  tlie  misrioiiary  never 
isifott  howev&y  tbat  lie  was  also  a  sentinel  doing 
oncost  duty  for  his  own  race.   Apostle  he  was, 
but  patriol  too.   Besides,  it  was  to  the  spiritual 
inteiesi  of  the  missionary  to  keep  his  flock  in 
contact  with  the  French  alone;  for  if  they  became 
acquainted  with  the  English  they  would  soon  come 
under  the  smirch  of  heresy.    To  prevent  the  In- 
dians from  engaging  in  any  commercial  deali^ 
with  Dutch  or  English  heretics  meant  encouraging 
them  to  trade  exclusively  with  the  French.  Jm 
this  way  the  Jesuit  became  one  of  the  most  fMlous 
of  helpers  in  carrying  out  the  French  program 
for  diverting  to  Montreal  the  eatae  fur  trade  of. 
the  western  regions.    He  ««s  Uras  not  01^  a  pio- 
ueer  of  the  faith  but  at  the  saist       «  rittlflnilw 
ol  ecHumercial  empire.  It  is  true,  ojwlit,  tlMit  thfa 
service  to  the  trading  ^IcresU  of  the  ccOoay  wm 
but  ill-reqiAad  hy  ^  wlam  It  Meflted  mil. 
The  trader  too  oH^  r^d  the  missionary  hi 
piitty  po«  Goki  by  brlngteg  tbe  curse  of  the  liquor 
trafic  to  Ml  ^em,  md  by  giving  denial  by  shame 
Im  eenduct  to  all  the  good  futher's  moral  teach- 
ings.   tn  spite  of  such  hievjtabls  dm¥/htu  kn.  iUt> 
Jerait  rendered  a  great  service  to  thi*  iemiklg 


m      CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

interests  of  New  France,  far  greater  indeed  Hbrnm 
he  ever  claimed  or  received  credit  for. 

In  the  struggle  for  the  caaAid  of  the  fur  traie 
geographical  advantages  h^  wiA  ike  Fteadk. 
They  had  two  e3EceUeBt  roolw  hmm  Montreid 
^Mctly  nto  iht  rk^eat  imver  iMdb  «f  ike  oonti- 
neit.  "One  <rf  Aew,  by  way  of  Hb  9^wa  «ad 
Ma*t«wa  Rvent,  had  the  dna^kaA  of  an  ove^ 
land  yortiy,  bvt  on  the  oUier  kaad  the  wkoie 
■•ttte  wao  TfiMondbly  sale  from  ffiterraptioii  by 
inqpiols  or  Mm^kk  attadc.  vfhe         route,  by 
wi^  of  ^  upiMT  St.  LawreBoe  and  the  lakes, 
passed  Ca^anqm,  Niagara,        Detroit  on  the 
way  to  Mif^limadriaac  cm-  to  Green  Bay.  This 
WM  an  all-waAer  route,  save  for  the  short  detour 
around  the  faHs  at  Niagara,  but  it  had  the  dis- 
advantage of  parsing,  for  a  long  stretch,  within 
easy  reach  of  Iroquois  interference.    The  French 
soon  realized,  however,  that  this  lake  route  was  the 
main  artery  of  the  colony's  fur  trade  and  must 
be  kept  open  at  any  cost.    They  accordingly 
entrenched  themselves  at  all  the  s'rategic  points 
along  the  route.    Fort  Frontenac  at  Catara^* 
was  built  m  1674;  the  f<»ti6ed  post  at  DeMt, 
in  1686;  the  fort  at  Niagara,  in  1678;  and  the 
establishments  at  Ike  Saidt  Ste.  Marie  mid  tA 


THE  COUKEUBS-DE-BOIS  159 

MichilinwckinM  liad  b««  eoiirtnicted  even 
earlier. 

But  these  places  omfy  maiked  the  nun  channels 
tfawigh  which  the  tmde  passed.   The  real  sources 
of  ^  far  supply  were  in  the  great  regions  now 
covimd  by  the  states  of  Ohio,  Wisconsin,  Iowa, 
and  Minnesota.   As  it  became  increasingly  neces- 
sary that  the  IWh  BhoM  gain  a  firm  footing 
m  time  territories  as  well,  they  proceeded  to 
•itahiiA  their  outposts  without  delay.    The  post 
«IB^  des  Puants  (Green  Bay)  was  established 
kfere  1685;  then  in  rapid  succession  came  trading 
Jwiades  in  the  very  heart  of  the  beaver  lands, 
Fort  St.  Antoine,  Fort  St.  Nicholas,  Fort  St 
Croix.  Fort  Perrot.  Fort  St.  Louis,  and  several 
others.    No  one  can  study  the  map  of  this  westeiB 
country  as  it  was  in  1700  without  realizing  whtA  a 
strangle-hold  the  French  had  achieved  upon  aO 
the  vital  arteries  of  its  trade. 

The  English  had  no  such  |eQ|;raphiGaI  advan^ 
tages  as  the  Preach,  nor  did  th^  adequately 
appreciate  the  importance  erf  beu«  fii^  the 
ground.  With  the  excqptiao  of  the  Hudson  aftw 
16W,  they  rtwied  m  peat  waterway  ka^ 
ta  the  i^erior.  And  Ae  Hudson  with  its  tiflm- 
tMiea  tapped        the  tenfteries  irf  the  Iro^ 


160       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

which  were  doiuded  of  beaver  at  an  early  date. 
These  Iroquois  might  have  rendered  great  service 
to  the  English  at  Albany  by  acting  as  middlonen 
in  gathering  the  furs  from  the  West.  They  tried 
hard,  indeed,  to  assume  this  rftle,  but,  as  they  were 
practically  always  at  enmity  with  the  western 
tribes,  tbqr  mevet  succeeded  in  turning  this  poasi- 
Inlity  to  their  full  emcdument. 

In  only  one  respect  were  the  French  at  a  serious 
disadvantage.  They  could  not  compete  with  the 
English  in  the  matter  of  prices.  The  English 
trader  could  give  the  Indian  for  his  furs  two  or 
three  times  as  much  merchandise  as  the  French 
could  oflFer  him.  To  account  for  this  commercial 
discrepancy  there  were  several  reasons.  The  cost 
of  transportation  to  and  from  France  was  high — 
approximately  twice  that  of  freighting  from 
London  to  Boston  or  New  York.  Navigation 
on  the  St.  Lawrence  was  dangerous  in  those  days 
before  buoys  and  beacons  came  to  mark  the 
shoal  waters,  and  the  risk  of  capture  at  sea  during 
the  incessant  waza  with  England  was  considerable. 
The  staples  most  used  in  the  Indian  tnuie — 
utensils,  muskets,  blankets,  and  strouds  (a  ctmne 
woolen  doth  made  into  shirts) — could  be  boy|^ 
more  cheaply  in  En^^and  than  in  Fhmce.  Rum 


THE  CX)UBEl]BS.D£.BOIS  m 
could  be  obtained  from  the  British  West  Indies 
more  cheaply  than  brandy  from  across  the  ocean 
Moreover,  there  were  duties  on  furs  shipped 
from  Quebec  and  on  aU  goods  which  came  into 
tibat  post   And.  finally,  a  paternal  government  in 
New  France  set  the  scale  of  prices  in  such  a  way 
•a  to  ensure  the  merchants  a  large  profit.   It  is 
clear,  then,  that  in  fair  and  open  competition 
for  the  Indian  trade  the  French  would  not  have 
survived  a  single  season.'   Their  only  hope  was 
to  keep  the  English  away  from  the  Indians  al- 
together,  and  particularly  from  the  Indians  of  tlie 
fur-bearing  regions.    This  was  no  easy  taak.  but 
in  general  they  managed  to  do  it  for  nettly  « 
century. 

The  most  active  and  at  the  same  time  the  most 
picturesque  figure  in  the  fur-trading  systm  ol 
New  France  was  the  coureur-de-boU,  Without 
hmi  the  trade  could  nether  have  been  begun  nor 

of  New  York  ( ix..   408-409)  the  following  oomJ^^STi 

1  musket  2  bcava.  thmymt 

8  pounds  of  powd«      1  bwvw  4  « 

Opraiadtofhid         1     "  •  « 


^Akta  1      -  2 

#  pwifa  atockiaga         i      "  g 


162       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

continued  successfully.  Usually  a  man  of  good 
birth,  of  some  miUtaiy  training,  and  of  more 
less  education,  he  was  a  rover  the  forest  by 
choioe  and  not  as  an  outcast  from  civilijsation. 
Young  men  came  from  France  to  serve  as  officers 
with  the  odonial  garrison,  to  hcAd  minor  civil 
posts,  to  become  seigneurial  landholders,  or  merely 
to  seek  adventure.  Very  few  came  out  with  the 
fixed  intention  of  engaging  in  the  forest  trade;  but 
hundreds  fell  victims  to  its  magnetism  after  they 
had  arrived  in  New  France.  The  young  officer  who 
grew  tired  of  garrison  duty,  the  young  seigneur 
who  found  yeomanry  tedious,  the  young  habitant 
who  disliked  the  daily  toil  of  the  farm  —  young  men 
of  all  social  ranks,  in  fact,  succumbed  to  this  lure 
of  the  wilderness.  "I  cannot  tell  you,"  wrote 
one  governor,  "how  attractive  this  life  is  to  all 
our  youth.  It  consists  in  doing  nothing,  caring 
nothing,  following  every  inclination,  and  getting 
out  of  the  way  of  all  restraint."  In  any  case  the 
ranks  of  the  voyageurs  included  those  who  had 
the  best  and  most  virile  blood  in  the  colony. 

Just  how  many  Frenchmen,  young  and  old,  were 
eijgaged  in  the  lawless  and  fascinating  life  of  the 
forest  trader  when  the  fur  traffic  was  at  its  height 
cannot  be  stated  wiih  einctness.   But  the  nundber 


THE  COUBEUBS-DE-BOIS  les 
miut  have  been  huge.  The  intendant  Duches- 
neau,  in  1080,  eftimated  that  more  than  eight 
hundred  men,  out  of  a  colonial  population  number- 
ing less  than  ten  thousand,  were  off  in  the  woods. 
"There  is  not  a  family  of  any  account,"  he  wrote 
to  the  King,  "but  has  sons,  brothers,  uncles,  and 
nephews  among  these  coureurs-de-bois.*'  This 
may  be  an  exaggeration,  but  from  references 
contained  in  the  dispatches  of  various  royal  officials 
one  may  fairly  conclude  that  Duchesneau's  esti- 
mate of  the  number  of  traders  was  not  far  wide 
ofthemark.   And  there  is  other  evidence  ai  to  the 
size  of  this  exodus  to  the  woods.   Nicholas  Petiot, 
when  he  left  Montreal  for  Gieoi  Bi^  in  1088, 
took  with  him  one  hundred  and  lorty-threJ 
voyageurs.'  La  Hontaa  found  "thirty  or  forty 
eoureurs-de-hois  at  every  post  in  the  IDmois 
countiy."* 

AmoQg  the  leaden  <rf  ^e  eoureurg-de-bois 
several  names  stand  out  prominoitly.  Francois 
Dauphme  de  la  P<»tt,  Nicholas  Perrot,  and  Henri 
de  Tontjy,  the  Meutoiants  <rf  La  Salle,  Alphonse  de 
Tonty,  AidoSm  4b  U  liothe-Cadillac,  Greysolon 
Du  Lhut  and  his  brother  Greysolon  de  la  Tourette, 

»  DoeumenU  lUUaive  to  the  Cohnial  Bktm^^Hm  TmK  ii,  iNl 
■F<9«^  («d.  Thwsites),  17a. 


164       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
Pierre  Esprit  Radisson  and  M^ard  Chouart  de 
Groseiliiers,  Olivier  Morel  de  la  Duraatiiye,  Je«i- 
Paul  Le  Gardeu-  de  Repentigi^,  Lixda  de  Is 
Porte  de  Louvigny,  Louu  and  Judienau  JoUet, 
Pierre  Le  Sueur,  Bouchor  de  la  Perri^  Jean 
Pierre  Jobin,  Denu  Maai^,  Nicholas  d'Ailleboiut 
de  Mantet,  FraaQou  Perthius,  Etienne  Bnil^ 
Charles  Judiereau  de  St.  Denis»  Pierre  Moreau 
dit  La  Tcrapine,  Jean  Nicolet— these  are  only  the 
few  who  connected  themselves  with  some  striking 
event  which  has  transmitted  their  names  to 
posterity.   Many  of  th^  have  Irft  their  imprint 
upon  the  geografdiical  nomendature  of  the  Middle 
West.   Hundreds  of  others,  the  rank  and  file  of 
this  picturesque  array,  gained  no  place  upon  the 
written  records,  since  they  took  part  in  no  striking 
achievement  worthy  of  mention  in  the  dispatches 
and  memoirs  of  their  day.    The  coureur-de-bois 
was  rarely  a  chronicler.  If  the  Jesuits  did  not  deign 
to  pillory  him  in  their  RSlcUions,  or  if  the  royal  offi- 
cials did  not  singk  him  out  for  praise  in  the  memo- 
rials which  they  sent  home  to  France  each  year, 
the  coureur-de-bois  might  spend  his  whole  active 
life  m  the  forest  without  transmitting  his  name  or 
fame  to  a  future  generatiwn.    And  that  is  what 
most  of  them  did.   A  few  of  the  voyageurs  found 


J  ^ 


THE  C0UBEll)B8.DB-IK)IS 


ICS 

tbat  one  tiq>  to  the  wilds  wai  enough  and  never 
took  to  tlie  trade  permanently.  But  the  great 
majority,  oooe  the  vinia  of  the  free  life  had  entered 
their  veins,  could  not  forsake  the  wild  woods  to 
the  end  of  their  days.  The  dangers  of  the  life 
were  great,  and  the  mortality  among  the  traders 
was  high.  Coureurs  de  risques  they  ought  to 
have  been  called,  as  La  Hontan  remarks.  But 
taken  as  a  whole  they  were  a  vigorous,  adventur- 
ous, strong-limbed  set  of  men.  It  was  a  genume 
compliment  that  they  paid  to  the  wilderness 
when  they  chose  to  spend  year  after  year  in  its 
embrace. 

In  their  methods  of  trading  the  cwLreun-de-hoit 
were  unlike  anything  that  the  worid  had  mr 
known  before.   The  Hanseatie  merchasts  of 
earlier  fur-trading  days  in  N<wthem  Europe  had 
established  theii>  forts  (m>  faetories  at  Novgorod, 
at  Bergra,  and  dsewhere,  great  enitvp&U  stored 
witii  merchandise  lor  the  neighboring  territories. 
The  traders  lived  within,  and  the  natives  came  to 
the  posts  to  barter  their  furs  or  other  raw  msteriafa. 
The  merchants  of  the  East  India  Company  had 
estaWished  thdr  posts  in  the  Qri^t  and  traded 
with  the  natives  on  the  same  basis.   But  the 
Norman  voyageurs  <rf  the  New  World  did  things 


Miciocorr  tBouirioN  test  chart 

{ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


A   -APPLIED  IM/IGE  li 


nc 


1653  East  Main  Street 

Rochester.  New  York      14609  USA 

(716)  482  -  0300  -  Phone 

(716)  288     SqSQ  -  Tax 


166      CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

quite  diff^r^tly.  They  established  fortified  posts 
throughout  the  r^ons  west  of  the  Lakes,  it  is 
true,  but  they  did  not  make  them  storehouses, 
nor  did  they  bring  to  them  any  considerable 
stock  of  merchandise.  The  posts  were  for  use 
as  the  headquarters  of  the  coureurs-de-bois,  and 
usually  sheltered  a  smaU  garrison  of  soldiers  during 
the  winter  months ;  they  likewise  served  as  places  of 
defense  in  the  event  of  attack  and  of  rendezvous 
when  a  trading  expedition  to  Montreal  was  being 
organized.  It  was  not  the  policy  of  the  French 
authorities,  nor  was  it  the  plan  of  the  coureurs-de- 
boisy  that  any  considerable  amount  of  trading 
should  take  place  at  these  western  stockades. 
They  were  only  the  outposts  intended  to  keep  the 
trade  running  in  its  proper  channels.  In  a  word, 
it  was  the  aim  of  the  French  to  bring  the  trade  to 
the  colony,  not  to  send  the  colony  overland  to 
the  savages.  That  is  the  wsy  Fatbor  ffarhril 
phrased  it,  and  he  was  quite  right.' 

Every  spring,  accordingly,  if  the  great  tndc 
routes  to  Montreal  w&e  reas<mably  free  frwn 
danger  of  an  overwhelming  Iroquois  attadc,  the 
counurs-de-bois  roimded  up  the  western  Indians 

>  Carheil  to  Chunpigny  (August  SO.  1702).  in  B.  G.  Thwftite% 
Jmrit  JWolMM  and  AUM  DanmMU,  bn^  gl9. 


THE  COUBEUBS-DE-BOIS  167 

with  their  stocks  of  furs  from  the  winter's  hunt. 
Then,  proceeding  to  the  grand  rendezvous  at 
Michilimackinac  or  Greoi  Bay,  the  canoes  were 
joined  into  one  great  flotilla,  and  the  whole  array 
set  oS  down  the  lakes  or  by  way  of  «^thc  Ottawa 
to  Montreal.  This  annual  fur  flotilla  often 
numbered  hundreds  of  canoes,  the  cottr«ttft-dc- 
bois  acting  as  pilots,  assisting  the  Indians  to  ward 
oflP  attacks,  and  adding  their  European  intelligence 
to  the  red  man*s  native  cunning.*  About  mid- 
summer, having  covered  the  thousand  miles  of 
water,  the  canoes  drew  within  hail  of  the  settle- 
ment of  Montreal.  Above  the  Lachine  Rapids 
the  population  came  forth  to  meet  it  with  a  noisy 
welcome.  Enterprising  cabareHerSt  in  defiance 
of  the  royal  decrees,  had  usually  set  up  their 
booths  along  the  diores  for  the  sale  of  brandy, 
and  thoe  was  some  brisk  trading  as  well  as  a 
considerable  dii^day  of  aboriginal  boisteioaaiess 
even  before  the  canoes  reached  Montreal. 

Once  at  the  settlements  the  Indians  set  up  their 
tepees,  bdled  thdr  kettles,  and  unpacked  thdr 
bundles  of  pdtiy.   A  day  was  then  givoi  over  to  ft 

» The  flotilla  of  169S  connsted  of  more  than  400  canoea.  with  »bout 
COO  egtmurt-ds-boii,  1200  Indiana,  and  furs  to  the  value  of  over 


168      CBUSADEBS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

great  coimdl  which  the  governor  of  the  colony, 
in  scarlet  doak  and  plumed  hat,  often  came  from 
Quebec  to  attend.  There  were  the  usual  pledges 
of  friendship;  the  peace-pipe  went  its  round,  and 
the  song  of  the  calumet  was  sung.  Then  the 
trading  really  began.  The  merchants  of  Montreal 
had  their  little  shops  along  the  shore  where  they 
spread  out  for  display  the  merchandise  brought 
by  the  spring  ships  from  France.  There  were 
muskets,  powder,  and  lead,  blankets  in  all  colors, 
coarse  cloth,  knives,  hatchets,  kettles,  awls, 
needles,  and  other  staples  of  the  trade.  But  the 
Indian  had  a  weakness  for  trinkets  of  every  sort, 
so  that  cheap  and  gaudy  necklaces,  bnu^ets, 
tin  looking-glasses,  little  bells,  combs,  vermilion, 
and  a  hundred  other  things  of  the  sort  were  ihae 
to  tempt  him.  And  last,  but  not  least  in  its 
purchasmg  power,  was  brandy.  Many  hogsheads 
of  it  were  disposed  of  at  every  annual  fair,  and 
while  it  lasted  the  Indians  turned  bedlam  loose  in 
the  town.  The  fair  was  Montreal's  gala  event 
in  every  year,  for  its  success  meant  everything  to 
local  prosperity.  Indeed,  in  the  few  years  when, 
owing  to  the  Iroquois  dangers,  the  flotilla  failed 
to  arrive,  the  whde  settlement  was  on  the  verge 
of  bankruptcy. 


THE  OOUBEUBS-DE-BOIS 

What  the  Indian  got  for  hia  furs  at  Montreal 

varied  from  time  to  time,  depending  for  the  moat 
part  upon  the  stete  of  the  fur  maricet  in  France. 
And  this,  again,  hinged  to  some  extent  upon  the 
course  of  fashions  there.   On  one  occagicm  the 
fashion  of  wearing  low-crowned  hats  cut  the  vahie 
of  beaver  skins  in  two.    Beaver  was  the  fur  of 
furs,  and  the  mainstay  of  the  trade.  Whether 
for  warmth,  durability,  or  attractiveness  in  ap- 
pearance, there  was  none  other  to  equal  it.  Not 
all  beaver  skins  were  valued  alike,  however. 
Those  taken  from  animals  killed  during  the  winter 
were  preierred  to  those  taken  at  other  seasons, 
while  new  skins  did  not  bring  as  high  a  price  as 
those  which  the  Indian  had  worn  for  a  time  and 
had  thus  made  soft.   The  trade,  in  fact,  developed 
a  classification  of  beaver  skins  into  soft  and 
half-soft,  green  and  haK-green,  wet  and  dry,  and 
so  on.   Skins  of  good  quality  brou^t  at  Montreal 
from  two  to  four  livres  per  pound,  and  they  aver- 
aged a  little  more  than  two  pounds  each.  Hie 
normal  cargo  of  a  large  canoe  was  forty  padcs  ol 
skins,  each  pack  wdghing  about  fifty  pounds. 
Translated  into  the  currency  of  today  a  beaver 
pelt  of  fair  quality  was  worth  about  a  ddlar.  When 
we  read  in  the  <^cial  dispatdies  that  a  halt- 


170      CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

milUon  livret*  worth  of  skins  changed  owne» 
at  the  Montreal  fair,  this  statement  means  that  at 
least  a  hundred  thousand  animals  must  have  been 
alau^tered  to  furnish  a  huge  flotilla  with  its 
cargo. 

The  furs  of  other  animals,  otter,  marten,  and 
mink,  were  also  in  demand  but  brought  smaller 
prices.  Moose  hides  sold  well,  and  so  did  bear 
skins.  Some  buffalo  hides  were  brought  to 
Montreal,  but  in  proportion  to  their  value  they 
were  bulky  and  took  up  so  much  room  in  the 
canoes  that  the  Indians  did  not  care  to  bring  them. 
The  heyday  of  the  buffalo  trade  came  later,  with 
the  development  of  overland  transportation.  At 
any  rate  the  dependence  of  New  France  upon 
these  furs  was  complete.  "I  would  have  you 
know,"  asserts  one  chronicler,  "that  Canada 
subsists  only  upon  the  trade  of  these  skins  and 
f lu-s,  three-fourths  of  which  come  from  the  people 
who  live  around  the  Great  Lakes."  The  prosper- 
ity of  the  French  colony  hinged  wholly  up<m  two 
things:  whether  the  routes  from  the  West  were 
open,  and  Whether  the  market  fw  furs  m  France 
was  holdini;  up.  Upon  the  fonner  depended  the 
quantity  of  furs  brought  to  M<mtreal;  upon  the 
latter,  the  amount  of  pn^t  whidi  the  eoitmir*- 


THE  CX)UR£UBS-DE.BOIS  171 

de4Hn9  and  the  mercliaiits  of  the  oolcniy  would 
obtain. 

For  ten  days  or  a  fortnight  the  great  fair  at 
Montreal  c(mtinued.  A  picturesque  bazaar  it 
must  have  be^  this  meeting  of  the  two  ends 
of  civilization,  for  trade  has  been,  in  all  ages,  a 
mighty  magnet  to  draw  the  ends  of  the  earth 
together.  When  all  the  furs  had  been  sdd,  the 
coureurs-de-boia  took  some  goods  ahmg  with 
them  to  be  used  partly  in  trade  on  their  own  ac- 
count  at  the  western  posts  and  partly  as  presents 
from  the  King  to  the  western  chieftains.  There 
is  reason  to  suspect,  however,  that  much  of 
what  the  royal  bounty  provided  for  this  latter 
purpose  was  diverted  to  private  use.  There  were 
annual  fairs  at  Three  Rivers  ')r  the  Indians  of 
the  St.  Maurice  region;  at  Sorel,  for  those  of  the 
Richelieu;  and  at  Quebec  and  at  Tadoussac,  for 
the  redskins  of  the  Lower  St.  Lawrence.  But 
Montreal,  owing  to  its  situation  at  the  confluence 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Ottawa  trade  routes, 
was  by  far  the  greatest  fur  mart  of  all. 

It  has  been  mentioned  that  the  colonial  autluxi- 
ties  tried  to  discourage  trading  at  the  western  posts. 
Their  aim  was  to  bring  the  Indian  with  his  fura 
to  the  colonial  settlement.  But  this  pdicy  oouU 


r2       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

not  be  fully  carried  out.  Deq>ite  the  moft  ngtd 
prohibitions  and  the  seveivst  penalties,  scmie  ci 
the  eoureur8'4e-bou  i^.  ould  take  goods  and  brandy 
to  sell  in  the  wilderness.  Finding  that  this 
practice  could  not  be  exterminated,  the  authorities 
decided  to  permit  a  limited  amount  ctf  forest 
trading  iet  strict  regulation,  and  to  this  end 
the  K'  o  authcxrized  the  granting  of  tw^ty-five 
licoises  each  year.  These  Ikoises  permitted  a 
trader  to  take  three  canoes  with  as  much  mer- 
chandise as  they  i^  .'ild  hold.  As  a  rule  the 
licoises  were  not  issued  directly  to  the  traders 
themselves,  but  were  given  to  the  religious  in- 
stitutions or  to  dependent  widows  of  former  royal 
officers.  These  in  turn  sold  them  to  the  traders, 
sometimes  for  a  thousand  livres  or  more.  The 
system  of  granting  twenty-five  annual .  .  did 
not  of  itself  throw  the  door  wide  open  ae  at 

the  western  establishments.  But  as  tiL::e  went  on 
the  plan  was  much  abused  by  the  granting  of  private 
licenses  to  the  friends  of  the  officials  at  Quebec,  and 
**  God  knows  how  many  of  these  were  issued,  **  as  one 
writer  of  the  time  puts  it.  Traders  often  went, 
moreover,  without  any  license  at  all,  and  especially 
in  the  matter  of  carrying  brandy  into  the  forest 
they  frequ^tly  set  the  official  orders  at  defiance. 


THE  COUREUBS-DE-BOIS  178 

This  brandy  question  was>  in  ftict,  the  great 
trouUer  in  Israel  It  bulks  large  in  every  chroni- 
cle, every  memoir,  every  RilaHov  and  in  almost 
every  ofiSdal  dispatch  during  a  period  of  mc«e  than 
fifty  yean.  It  worried  the  King  himsdf;  it  set 
the  officers  of  the  Church  and  State  against  each 
other;  and  it  provided  more  friction  throughout 
the  western  domini<His  of  France  than  all  other 
issues  put  togeth^. 

As  to  the  ethics  of  the  liquor  traffic  in  New 
France,  there  was  never  any  serious  disagreement. 
Even  the  secula '  authorities  readily  admitted 
that  brandy  did  tiie  Indians  no  good,  and  that 
it  would  be  better  to  sell  them  blankets  and 
kettles.  But  that  was  not  the  point.  The  traders 
believed  that,  if  the  western  Indians  could  not 
secure  brandy  from  the  French,  they  would  get 
rum  from  the  English.  The  Indian  would  be  no 
better  o£f  in  that  case,  and  the  French  would  lose 
their  hold  on  him  into  the  bargain.  Time  and 
again  they  reiterated  the  argument  that  the 
prohibition  of  the  brandy  trade  would  make  an 
end  to  trade,  to  French  influence,  and  even  to  the 
missionary's  own  labors.  For  if  the  Indian  went 
to  the  English  for  rum,  he  would  get  into  toudi 
with  heresy  as  well;  he  would  have  Protestant 


174       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

missionariet  come  to  Ida  village,  and  tlie  day  of 
Jesuit  propaganda  would  be  at  an  end. 

This,  throughout  the  whole  trading  period,  was 
the  stock  argument  of  publicans  and  sinners. 
The  Jesuit  missionaries  combated  it  with  all  their 
power;  yet  they  never  fully  convinced  either  the 
colonial  or  the  home  authorities.  Louis  XIV, 
urged  by  his  confessor  to  take  <»ie  stand  and  by  his 
ministm  to  take  the  other,  was  sorely  puzded. 
He  wanted  to  do  his  duty  as  a  Most  Christian 
£mg,  yet  he  did  not  want  to  have  on  his  hands  a 
bankrupt  colony.  Bishop  Laval  pleaded  with 
Colbert  that  brandy  would  spell  the  ruin  of  all 
religion  in  the  new  world,  but  the  subtle  minister 
calmly  retorted  that  the  eau-de-vie  had  not  yet  over- 
come the  ancient  church  in  older  lands.  To  set 
his  conscience  right,  the  King  referred  the  whole 
question  to  the  savants  of  the  Sorbonne,  and  they, 
like  good  churchmen,  promptly  gave  their  opinion 
that  to  sell  intoxicants  to  the  heathen  was  a 
heinous  sin.  But  that  counsel  afforded  the  Grand 
Monarch  scant  guidance,  for  it  was  not  the  relative 
sinfulness  of  the  brandy  trade  that  perplexed 
him.  The  practical  e]q>ediency  of  issuing  a  de- 
cree of  prohibition  was  what  lay  upon  his  mind. 
On  that  point  Colbert  gave  him  sensible  advice 


THE  COUREURS-DE-BOIS  175 

namely,  that  a  question  of  practical  policy  could  be 
better  settled  by  the  colonists  themselves  than 
by  cloistered  scholars.  Guide  J  by  this  sugges- 
tion, the  King  asked  for  a  limited  plebiadte;  the 
governor  of  New  France  was  requested  to  call 
together  **the  leading  inhabitants  ci  the  ooiuny" 
and  to  obtain  from  each  one  his  t^nnion  in  writing. 
Here  was  an  inkling  of  colonial  self-goyernment, 
and  it  is  unfortunate  that  the  King  did  not  resort 
more  often  to  the  same  method  of  solving  the 
ookmy's  i»obleni8. 

On  October  26,  1678,  Frontenae  gathered  the 
''leading  inhabitants"  in  the  Ch&teau  at  Quebec. 
Apart  from  the  officials  and  military  officers  on 
the  <me  hand  and  the  clergy  on  the  other,  most  of 
the  solid  men  of  New  France  were  there.  One 
after  another  their  views  were  called  for  and  writ' 
ten  down.  Most  of  those  present  expressed  he 
opinion  that  the  evils  of  the  traffic  had  '/een 
exaggerated,  and  that  if  the  French  should  pro- 
hibit the  sale  of  brandy  to  the  savages  they  would 
soon  lose  their  hold  upon  the  western  trade.  There 
were  some  dissenters,  among  them  a  few  who  urged 
a  more  rigid  regulation  of  the  traffic.  One  hard- 
headed  seigneur,  the  Sieur  Dombourg,  raised 
the  query  whether  the  coloi^  was  really  so  dqim- 


176       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

dent  for  its  existence  upon  the  fur  trade  as  the  otlMfi 
had  assumed  to  be  the  case.  If  there  were  less 
attention  to  trade,  he  urged,  there  would  be  more 
heed  paid  to  agriculture,  and  in  the  long  run  it 
woukl  be  better  for  the  ccAooy  to  ship  wheat  to 
VnanK  instead  of  furs.  "Let  the  western  trade 
go  to  the  English  in  exchange  for  their  rum;  it 
would  ndth^  oidure  long  nor  profit  them  much." 
This  was  sound  sense,  but  it  did  not  cany  graat 
we^t  with  Dombouig's  hearers. 

The  written  testimony  was  put  together  and. 
with  commeiits  by  the  govemm',  was  sent  to 
Fhmoe  for  the  informatkm  fd  the  King  and  his 
ministers.  Apparently  it  had  some  efiPect,  for, 
without  altogether  prohibiting  the  use  of  brandy 
in  the  western  trade,  a  royal  decree  of  1679  forbade 
the  eoureurs'de-bois  to  carry  it  with  them  on  their 
trips  up  the  lakes.  The  issue  of  this  decree,  how- 
ever, made  no  perceptible  change  in  the  situation, 
and  brandy  was  taken  to  the  western  posts  as 
before.  So  far  as  one  can  determine  from  the 
actual  figures  of  the  trade,  however,  the  quantity 
of  intoxicants  used  by  the  French  in  the  Indian 
trade  has  been  greatly  exaggerated  by  the  mis- 
sionaries. Not  more  than  fifty  barrels  (barriqites) 
ever  went  to  the  western  regions  in  the  course  of  a 


THE  COUREURS-DE-BOIS  177 


yew.  A  barrel  held  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
IMiitiy  ao  that  the  total  would  be  less  than  one  pmt 
per  capita  for  the  adult  Indiana  within  the  Fimeh 
sphere  of  influence.  That  waa  a  far  amaUtt  per 
aq>ita  onuumption  than  Frenchmen  gussled  in 
a  ain^  day  at  a  Breton  fair,  aa  La  Salle  once 
pcnnted  out.  Thetrouble was>  how . .  \  that thmi- 
aandt  d  Indiana  got  no  brandy  at  fhOe  a  rela- 
tively small  number  obtained  too  much  of  it  "What 
they  got,  moreover,  was  poor  stuff,  most  of  it,  and 
well  diluted  with  water.  The  Indian  drank  to  get 
drunk,  and  when  brandy  constituted  the  other 
end  of  the  bargain  he  would  give  for  it  the  very 
furs  off  his  back. 

But  if  the  Jesuits  exaggerated  the  amount  of 
brandy  used  in  the  ^xade,  they  did  not  exaggerate 
its  demoralizing  e^  :  upon  both  the  Indian  and 
the  trader.  Th-.y  believed  that  brandy  would 
wrecV  the  Iii'^'ian's  body  and  ruin  his  soul.  They 
were  a  jhti  it  did  both.  It  made  of  every  western 
post,  in  the  words  of  Father  Carheil,  a  den  of 
"brutality  and  violence,  of  injustice  and  impiety, 
of  lewd  and  shameless  conduct,  of  contempt  and 
insults.*'  No  sinister  motives  need  be  sought  to 
explain  the  bitterness  with  which  the  blackrobes 
cried  out  against  the  iniquities  of  »  systan  which 


178      CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

swindled  the  redskin  out  of  his  furs  and  debauched 
him  into  the  bargain.  Had  the  Jesuits  done 
otherwise  than  fight  it  from  first  to  last  they  would 
have  been  false  to  the  traditions  of  their  Church 
and  their  Order.  They  were,  when  all  is  said  and 
done,  the  truest  friends  that  the  North  American 
Indian  has  ever  had. 

The  effects  of  the  fur  trade  upon  both  Indians 
and  French  were  far-reaching.  The  trade  changed 
the  red  man's  order  of  life,  took  him  in  a  single 
geaeration  from  the  stone  to  the  iron  age,  de- 
molislud  his  old  notbns  of  the  world,  carried  him 
on  long  joum^,  and  made  him  a  different  man. 
F^ch  brandy  and  English  rum  sapped  his  stamina, 
and  the  grand  UJbertinage  of  the  traders  calloused 
whatever  moral  soise  he  had.  His  folklore,  his 
reb'gion,  and  his  institutions  made  no  progress 
after  the  trad»  had  once  altered  his  territories. 

On  the  French  the  effects  of  tribal  commmse 
were  not  so  disastrous,  though  pernicious  enough. 
The  trade  drew  off  into  the  wilderness  the  vigorous 
blood  of  the  colony.  It  cast  its  spell  over  New 
France  from  Lachine  to  the  Saguenay.  Men  left 
their  farms,  their  wives,  and  their  families,  they 
mortgaged  their  property,  and  they  borrowed  from 
their  friends  in  order  to  join  the  ai^imal  h^pra 


THE  OOUREURS-DE-BOIS  ITS 

to  the  West.  Yet  very  few  of  these  traders  accu> 
mulated  fortunes.  It  was  not  the  trader  but  the 
merchant  at  Montreal  or  Quebec  who  got  the 
lion's  share  of  the  profit  and  took  none  of  the  risks. 
Many  of  the  coureurs-de-bois  entered  the  trade 
with  ample  funds  and  emerged  in  poverty.  Nicholas 
Ferrot  and  Greysolon  Du  Lhut  were  coiispknioiis 
examples.  It  was  a  highly  speculative  game.  At 
times  large  profits  came  easily  and  wefe  spent 
recklessly.  The  trade  encouraged  prafl^gaqr, 
bravado,  and  garidmess;  it  deadoied  tlie  mmal 
soise  of  the  colony,  and  even  schooled  men  in 
tiickeiy  and  peculation.  It  was  a  oomipting 
influence  in  the  official  life  of  New  Vmux,  and 
evoi  govenuaa  ccnild  not  ke^  from  sdlling  tibdr 
hands  in  it.  But  most  unfortunate  of  all,  the 
colony  was  impdfed  to  put  its  economic  energies 
into  what  was  at  best  an  ephemeral  and  transitory 
source  <^  national  wealth  and  to  neglect  the  solid 
foundati<»is  of  agriculture  and  industry  which  in 
the  long  run  would  have  profited  its  people  much 
more. 


CHAPTER  X 

AGBICULTUBE,  INDUBTBT,  AND  TBADB 

It  was  the  royal  desire  tibat  New  France  should 
some  day  become  a  powerful  and  prosperous 
agricultural  colony,  providing  the  motherland 
with  an  acceptable  addition  to  its  food  supply. 
To  this  end  large  tracts  ot  land  were  granted 
upon  most  lib^al  terms  to  incoming  settlers, 
and  every  effort  was  made  to  get  these  acres 
cultivated.  Encouragement  and  coercion  were 
alike  given  a  trial.  Settlers  who  did  well  were 
given  official  recognition,  sometimes  even  to  the 
extent  of  rank  in  the  fuMeue,  On  the  othor 
hand  those  who  1^  their  lands  undeered  woe 
rq>eatedly  threatened  with  the  revocation  of 
their  land-titles,  and  in  some  cases  their  hold- 
ings were  actually  taken  away.  From  the 
days  of  the  earliest  settlement  down  to  the  eve 
of  the  English  conquest,  the  officials  of  both 
the  Church  and  the  State  never  ceased  to  use 

180 


AGRICULTURE,  INDUSTRY,  AND  TRADE  181 

their  best  endeav<Mr8  in  the  interests  of  ^^l^^ipm* 
agriculture. 

Yet  with  all  this  official  interest  and  encourage- 
ment agricultural  developm^t  was  slow.  Much 
of  the  land  on  both  the  north  and  the  south 
shores  of  the  St.  Lawraioe  was  heavily  timbeied, 
and  the  work  of  clearing  proved  tedk>us.  It  was 
estimated  that  an  industrious  settler,  working 
by  himsdl ,  could  dear  not  msae  than  qds  super- 
ficial arpeni  in  a  whole  season.  So  dowly  did  the 
work  make  progress,  in  fact,  that  in  1712,  after 
fifty  years  of  royal  paternalism,  the  cultivable 
area  of  New  France  amounted  to  only  150,000 
arpents,  and  at  the  dose  of  the  French  dominion 
in  1760  it  was  scarcdy  more  than  twice  that 
figure, — in  other  words,  about  five  arpents  for 
each  head  of  population. 

While  industry  and  trade,  particularly  the  In- 
dian trade,  took  the  attention  and  interest  of  a 
considerable  portion  in  the  population  of  New 
France,  agriculture  was  from  first  to  last  the 
vocation  of  the  great  majority.  The  census  of 
1695  showed  more  than  seventy-five  per  cent 
of  the  people  living  on  the  farms  of  the  colony 
and  this  ratio  was  almost  exactly  maintained, 
nearly  sixty  years  later,  when  tlw  census  of  1754 


18«       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

was  compiled.  This  population  was  scattered 
along  both  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence  from  a  point 
well  below  Quebec  to  the  region  surrounding 
Montreal.  Most  of  the  farms  fronted  on  the 
river  so  that  every  habitant  had  a  few  arpents 
of  marshy  land  for  hay,  a  tract  of  cleared  upland 
for  ploughing,  and  an  are«.  extending  to  the  rear 
which  might  be  turned  into  meadow  or  left 
uncleared  to  supply  him  with  firewood. 

Wheat  and  maize  were  the  great  staples, 
although  large  quantities  of  oats,  barley,  and 
peas  were  also  grown.  The  wheat  was  invariably 
spring-sown,  and  the  yield  w&Bged  from  d^t 
to  twelve  hundredweights  per  arpeni,  or  from 
toi  to  fourteen  bushels  per  acre.  Most  td  the 
wheat  was  made  into  flour  at  the  seigneurial  mfllif 
and  was  consumed  in  the  colony,  but  shipments 
w^  also  made  with  fair  r^fularity  to  France, 
to  the  West  Indies,  and  for  a  time  to  Louisbourg. 
In  17S6  the  exports  of  wheat  amounted  to  nearly 
100,000  bushels,  and  in  the  year  following  the 
banner  harvest  of  1741  this  total  was  nearly 
doubled.  The  price  which  the  habitant  got  for 
wheat  at  Quebec  ranged  normally  from  two  to 
four  livres  per  hundredweight  (about  thirty  to 
sixty  cents  per  bushel)  depending  upon  the  har- 


AGRICULTURE,  INDUSTRY,  AND  TRADE  183 

vests  in  the  colony  and  the  safety  with  which 
wheat  could  be  shipped  to  France,  which,  again, 
hinged  upor  the  fact  whether  France  and  F.ngUi^^ 
were  at  peace  or  at  war.  Indian  com  was 
not  exported  to  any  large  ext^t»  but  many 
caigoes  of  dried  peas  were  sent  abroad,  and 
occasionally  fh&ee  were  small  ^pments  €d  oats 
and  beans. 

Th3re  was  also  a  oonsiaerable  production  ol 
hemp,  flax,  and  tobacco,  but  not  for  export  in  aqy 
large  quantity.  The  tobacco  grown  in  the  cokxpy 
was  coarse  and  JU-flavcmid.  It  was  smoked  by 
both  the  habitant  and  the  Indian  because  it  was 
dieap;  but  Brazilian  tobacco  was  greatly  preferred 
by  those  who  could  afford  to  buy  it,  and  large 
quantities  of  this  were  brouf^t  in.  The  French 
Grovmunent  frowned  upon  tobacco-growing  in 
New  France,  believmc  as  Colbert  wrote  to  Talon  in 
1672,  tiiat  any  such  policy  would  be  prejudicial  to 
the  interests  o2  the  French  colonies  in  the  tropical 
zones  which  were  much  better  adapted  to  this 
branch  of  cultivation. 

Cattle  raising  made  substantial  progress,  and 
the  King  urged  the  Sovereign  Council  to  prohibit 
the  slaughter  of  cattle  so  that  the  herds  might 
keep  on  growing;  but  the  stock  was  not  of  a  li%ii 


184      CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

standard,  but  undersized,  of  mongrel  breed,  and 
poorly  cared  for.  Sheep  raising,  despite  the  brisk 
demand  for  wool,  made  slow  headway.  Most  of 
the  wool  needed  in  the  colony  had  to  be  brought 
from  France,  and  the  demand  was  great  because  so 
much  woolen  clothing  was  required  for  winter  use. 
The  keeping  of  poultry  was,  of  course,  another 
branch  of  husbandry.  The  habitants  were  fond  of 
horses;  even  the  poorest  managed  to  keep  two  or 
three,  which  was  a  wasteful  policy  as  there  was 
no  work  for  the  horses  to  do  during  nearly  half 
the  year.  Fodder,  however,  was  abundant  and 
cost  nothing,  as  each  habitant  obtained  from  the 
flats  along  the  river  all  that  he  could  cut  and 
carry  away.  This  marsh  hay  was  not  of  superior 
quality,  but  it  at  least  saved  to  carry  the  horses 
and  stock  through  the  wint». 

Tlie  methods  of  agriculture  were  b^ond  ques- 
tion slovenly  and  crude.  Catalogue,  the  mgi^f^r 
whom  the  authorities  commissioned  to  make  an 
agricultural  census  of  the  colony,  ventured  the 
opinicm  that,  if  the  fields  of  France  were  cultivated 
as  the  farms  of  Canada  were,  three-quarters  of 
the  French  people  would  starve.  Rotation  of  crops 
was  practicaUy  unknown,  and  fertilization  of  the 
land  was  rare,  although  the  habitant  frequently 


A6BICULTDRE,  INDUSTRY,  AND  TRADE  185 

burned  the  stubble  before  putting  the  plough  to 
his  fields.  From  time  to  time  a  part  of  each  farm 
was  allowed  to  lie  fallow,  but  such  fallow  fields 
were  leit  unploughed  and  soon  grew  so  rank  with 
weeds  that  the  soil  really  got  no  rest  at  all.  AH 
the  ploughing  was  done  in  the  spring,  and  it 
was  not  very  well  done  at  that,  for  the  land  was 
ploughed  in  ridgec  which  left  much  waste  between 
the  furrows.  Too  oft^  the  seed  became  poor, 
as  a  result  of  the  habitant  using  seed  from  his  own 
crops  year  after  year  untfl  it  became  nin  out. 
Most  of  the  cultivated  land  was  high  and  diy  and 
needed  no  artifidal  drainage.  Even  where  the 
water  lay  on  the  land  late  in  the  spring,  however, 
th^  was  korely  an  attempt,  as  Peter  Kahn  in 
his  Tmodt  lemaiks,  to  dram  it  off.  The  hab- 
itant had  putioice  in  greater  measure  t!ian 
industry,  and  he  was  always  ready  to  wait  for 
nature  to  do  his  work.  Everybody  depended 
for  his  implements  lar^^ely  upon  his  own  workman- 
ship, so  that  the  tools  of  agriculture  were  cf  poor 
construction.  The  cultivation  of  even  a  few 
arpents  required  a  great  deal  of  manual  drudgery. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  land  of  New  France  was 
fertile,  and  every  one  could  have  plenty  of  it  for  the 
asking.    Kalir  thought  it  quite  as  good  as  the 


186      CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

Average  in  the  £ii|^  colonies  and  far  better 
than  most  arable  land  in  his  own  Scandinavia. 

Why,  then,  did  French-Canadian  agriculture, 
despite  the  wajm  ofecial  encouragement  given  to 
jt,  make  such  relatively  meager  progress?  There 
are  several  reasons  for  its  backwardness.  1,  The 
long  winters,  which  developed  in  the  habit^ 
an  inveterate  disposition  to  idleness,  afford  the 
clue  to  one  of  them.    A  general  aversion  to  un- 
remitting manual  toil  was  one  of  the  colony's 
besetting  sins.   Notwithstanding  the  small  per 
capita  acreage,  accordingly,  there  was  a  continual 
complaint  that  not  enough  labor  could  be  had 
to  work  the  farms.    Women  and  children  were 
pressed  into  service  in  the  busy  seasons.  Yet 
the  odbny  abounded  in  idle  men,  and  mendicancy 
at  one  time  assumed  such  proportions  as  to  require 
the  enforcement  of  stringent  penalties.   The  au- 
thorities were  partly  to  bhune  for  the  develop- 
ment of  this  trait,  for  upon  the  slightest  excuse 
they  took  the  habitant  from  his  daily  routme  and 
set  him  to  help  with  warlike  expeditions  against 
the  Indians  and  the  English,  or  called  him  to  build 
roads  or  to  r^wur  the  fortificationsftkAnd  the 
lure  of  the  fur  trade,  which  drew  the  most  vigorous 
young  men  of  the  land  off  the  farms  into  the  forest. 


AGBICIJLTUBE.  INDUSTBY,  AND  TRADE  187 

wag  another  obstadc  to  the  growth  <rf  yeonuuuy. 
Mweover,  the  curioua  and  iaccmvenient  Aape  of 
the  farma,,  moat  of  them  mere  ribbona  of  land, 
with  a  narrow  f  roata^eand  disproportionate  depth, 
handicapped  all  ^F^rts  to  cultivate  the  fields  in 
an  intelligent  way.  \V^Fiiially,  there  was  the  general 
poverty  of  the  people.  With  a  large  family  to 
support,  for  families  of  ten  to  fifteen  children 
were  not  uncommon,  it  was  hard  for  the  settler 
to  make  both  ends  meet  from  the  annual  yield 
of  a  few  arpents,  however  fertile.  The  habitant, 
therefore,  took  the  shortest  cut  to  everything, 
getting  what  he  could  out  of  his  land  in  the  quick- 
est possible  way  with  no  reference  to  the  ultimate 
improvement  of  the  farm  itself.  If  he  '^ver 
managed  to  get  a  little  money,  he  waa  likely  to 
apend  it  at  once  and  to  become  as  impecunioua 
aa  before.  Such  a  propensity  did  not  make  for 
progreaa,  for  poverty  begeta  slovenlineaa  in  all  agea 
and  among  all  races  of  men. 

If  anything  like  the  industry  and  intelligence 
that  waa  beatowed  upon  agrkulture  in  the  Engliah 
ooloniea  had  been  iq>p]ied  to  the  St.  Lawrence 
vall^.  New  France  might  have  flipped  far  more 
wheat  than  beaver  akina  each  year  to  Europe. 
But  in  thia  reapect  the  colony  never  half  realized 


188      CRUSADEBS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
tbe  royal  eipecUtioiu.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
attempt  to  make  the  hmd  a  rich  grain-growing 
colony  was  far  from  being  a  flat  failure.   It  was 
.  supporting  its  own  population,  and  had  a  mo  !est 
amount  of  grain  each  year  for  export  to  France 
or  to  the  French  West  Indies.    With  peace  it 
would  soon  have  become  a  land  of  plenty,  for  the 
traveler  who  passed  along  the  great  river  from 
Quebec  to  Montreal  in  the  late  autumn  might  see, 
as  Kalm  in  his  Travels  tells  us  he  saw,  field  upon 
field  of  waving  grain  extending  from  the  shores 
inward  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  broken  only 
here  and  there  by  tracts  of  meadow  and  woodland. 
Here  was  at  least  the  nucleus  of  a  Golden  West 

Of  colonial  industry,  however,  not  as  much  can 
be  said  as  of  agriculture.  Down  to  about  166S 
it  had  given  scarcely  a  single  token  of  existence. 
The  colony,  until  that  date,  manufactured  nothing. 
Everything  in  the  way  of  furnishings,  utensils, 
apparel,  and  ornament  was  brought  in  the  com- 
pany's ships  from  France,  and  no  one  seemed  to 
look  upon  this  procedure  as  at  all  unusual.  On 
the  coming  of  Talon  in  1665,  however,  the  idea  of 
fostering  home  industries  in  the  colony  took  active 
shape.  By  persuasion  and  by  promise  of  reward, 
the  "Colbert  of  New  France"  interested  the 


AGRICULTDBB,  INDI}8TRY»  AND  TRADE  189 

prominent  citizens  of  Quebec  in  modat  induttrial 
enterprises  of  every  sort. 

But  the  outcome  soon  belied  the  intendant'f 
airy  hopes.   It  was  easy  enough  to  make  a  brave 
start  in  these  things,  especially  with  the  aid  of  an 
initial  subsidy  from  the  treasuiy;  but  to  keep 
the  wheels  of  industry  moving  year  after  year 
without  a  subvention  was  an  altogether  diffeient 
thing.   A  colony  numbering  leM  than  ten  thou- 
sand souls  did  not  furnish  an  adequate  market 
for  the  products  ol  varied  industries,  and  the  high 
cost  of  tranqxxrtatkm  made  It  difficult  to  eiport 
manufactured  wares  to  France  or  to  the  West 
Indies  with  any  hope  ol  profit.  A  change  of  tone, 
moreovCT,  soon  became  notxieable  In  Colbert's 
diqpatdies  with  reference  to  Industrial  devdop- 
ment.   In  1665,  when  giving  his  first  Instructions 
to  Talon,  the  minister  had  dilated  upon  his  desire 
that  Canada  should  become  self-sustaining  in  the 
matter  of  clothing,  shoes,  and  the  simpler  house- 
fumlshin|rs.    But  within  a  couple  of  years  Col- 
bert's mind  seems  to  have  taken  a  different  shift, 
and  we  find  him  advising  Talon  that,  after  all,  it 
might  be  better  if  the  people  of  New  France  would 
devote  their  energies  to  agriculture  and  thus  to 
raise  enough  grain  wherewith  to  buy  muuufactured 


100     (!;rusaders  of  new  france 

wares  from  France.  So,  for  one  reason  or  another, 
the  infant  industries  languished,  and,  after  Talon 
was  gone,  they  gradually  dropped  out  of  existence. 

Another  of  Talon's  ventures  was  to  send  pro- 
spectors in  search  of  minerals.  The  use  of  malle- 
able copper  by  the  Indians  had  been  noted  by  the 
French  for  many  years  p*id  various  rumors  con- 
cerning the  source  of  supply  had  filtered  through 
to  Quebec.  Some  of  Talon's  agents,  including 
Jean  Fet€,  w&at  as  far  as  the  upper  lakes,  returning 
with  samples  of  copper  cm.  But  the  distance  fnMBi 
Quebec  was  too  great  for  profitable  tnuu^ioitatioB 
and,  although  P^re  Dablon  in  1670  sent  down  an 
aocuntte  description  <^  the  great  masses  <^  ore  in 
the  Iiake  Superior  r^on,  many  gen^tions  were 
to  pass  before  any  serious  attempt  could  be  made 
to  devdop  this  source  of  wealth.  Near«r  at  hand 
some  titaniferous  iron  ore  was  discovoed,  at  Baie 
St.  Paul  below  Qudbec,  but  it  was  not  utilised, 
although  on  bdng  tested  it  was  found  to  be  good  in 
quality.  Then  the  intendant  sent  agents  to  verify 
reports  as  to  rich  coal  deposits  in  Isle  Royale 
(Cape  Breton),  and  they  returned  with  glowing 
accounts  which  subsequent  iiidustrial  history 
has  entirely  justified.  Shipments  of  this  coal  were 
brought  to  Quebec  for  consumption.   A  little  later 


AGRICULTURE,  INDUSTRY,  AND  TRADE  191 

the  iutendant  reported  to  Colbert  that  a  vein  of 
coal  had  been  actually  uncovered  at  the  foot  of  tlie 
great  rock  which  frowns  upon  the  Lower  Town  at 
Quebec,  adding  that  the  vein  could  not  be  followed 
for  fear  of  toppling  over  the  Ch&teau  which  ttood 
above.  No  one  has  ever  aince  found  any  trace  of 
Talon's  coal  deposit,  and  the  geologists  of  today 
are  quite  certam  that  the  intendant  had  more 
imagination  than  accunK^  of  statement  <x  ev*** 
of  elementary  nuneralogical  knowledge. 

Above  the  settlemoit  at  Three  Rivers  son^e 
excellent  deposits  of  bog  ircm  ore  were  found  in 
1668,  but  it  was  not  untO  five  decades  later  that 
the  first  forges  were  established  there.  These 
were  successfully  operated  throughout  the  remain- 
der of  the  Old  Fegime,  and  much  of  the  colony's 
iron  came  from  tl.cm  to  supply  the  blacksmiths. 
Vrom  time  to  time  rumors  of  other  mineral  dis- 
coveries came  to  the  ears  of  the  people.  A 
find  of  lead  was  reported  from  the  Gaspe  penin- 
sula, but  an  investigation  proved  it  to  be  a  oax. 
Copper  was  actually  found  in  a  dozen  places 
within  the  settled  ranges  of  the  colony,  but  not 
in  paying  quantities.  Every  one  was  alwav  n 
the  qui  vive  for  a  vein  of  gold  or  silver,  but  r  ►  p«rt 
of  New  France  ever  gave  the  slightest  h  at  of 


IM      CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

an  El  Dorado.  Prospecting  oigaged  the  energiei 
ol  many  colonists  in  every  goierationt  but  most 
of  those  who  thus  spent  their  years  at  it  got  nothing 
but  a  princely  dividend  <^  chagrin. 

Mention  should  also  be  made  of  the  brewing 
industry  which  Talon  set  upon  its  feet  during  his 
brief  intendancy  but  which,  like  all  the  rest  of  his 
schemes,  did  not  long  survive  his  departure.  In 
establishing  a  brewery  at  Quebec  the  paternal 
intendant  had  two  ends  in  mind:  first,  to  reduce 
the  large  consumption  of  eau-de-vie  by  providing  a 
cheaper  and  more  wholesome  substitute;  and 
second,  to  furnish  the  farmers  of  the  colony  with  a 
profitable  home  market  for  their  grain.  In  1671 
Talon  reported  to  the  French  authorities  that  the 
Quebec  brewery  was  capable  of  turning  out  four 
thousand  hogsheads  of  beer  per  annum,  and  thus 
of  creating  a  demand  for  many  thousand  bushels 
of  malt.  Hops  were  also  needed  and  were  expen- 
sive when  brought  from  France,  so  that  the  peo- 
ple were  ^couraged  to  grow  hop-vines  in  the 
colony.  But  even  with  grain  and  hops  at  hand, 
the  brewing  industry  did  not  thrive,  and  before 
many  years  Talon's  enterprise  closed  its  dows. 
The  building  was  finally  remodded  and  became 
the  headquarters  of  the  later  intendants. 


AGRICULTURE.  INDUSTRY.  AND  TRADE  108 

Flour-making  and  lumbering  were  the  two 
industries  which  made  most  consistent  progicsi 
in  the  cokmy.  Flour-mills  were  established  both 
in  and  near  Quebec  at  an  early  date,  and  in  ooune 
of  time  there  were  scores  of  them  scattered  through- 
out the  colony,  most  of  them  built  and  operated 
as  barud  mills  by  the  seigneurs.  The  majority 
were  windmills  after  the  Dutch  fashion,  but  some 
were  water-driven.  On  the  whole,  they  were  not 
very  efficient  and  turned  out  flour  of  such  indiflFer- 
ent  grade  that  the  bakers  of  Quebec  complained 
loudly  on  more  than  one  occasion.  In  response  to 
a  request  from  the  intendant,  the  King  sent  out 
some  fanning-mills  which  were  distributed  to 
various  seigneuries,  but  even  this  benefaction 
did  not  seem  to  make  any  great  improvement  in 
the  quality  of  the  product.  Yet  in  some  years 
the  colony  had  flour  of  sufficiently  good  quality 
for  export,  and  sent  small  cargoes  both  to  France 
and  to  the  French  West  Indies. 

The  sawing  of  lumber  was  carried  on  in  various 
parts  of  the  colony,  particularly  at  Malbaie  and  at 
Baie  St.  Paul.  Beam-timbers,  planks,  staves,  and 
shingles  were  made  in  large  quantities  both  for 
use  in  the  colony  and  for  export  to  France,  where 
the  timbers  and  {danks  were  in  demand  at  the 


194  CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
royal  shipyards.  Wherever  lands  were  granted 
by  the  Crown,  a  provision  was  inserted  in  the 
title-deed  reserving  all  oak  timber  and  all  pine 
of  various  species  suitable  for  mastings.  Though 
such  timber  was  not  to  be  cut  without  o£5cial 
permission,  the  people  did  not  always  respect  this 
reservation.  Yet  the  quantity  of  timber  shipped 
to  France  was  very  large,  and  next  to  furs  it  formed 
the  leading  item  in  the  cargoes  of  out£.  jing  ships. 
For  staves  there  was  a  good  market  at  Quebec 
where  barrels  were  being  made  for  the  packing  of 
salted  fish  and  eels. 

The  various  handicrafts  or  small  industries, 
such  as  blacksmithing,  cabinet-making,  pottery, 
brick-making,  were  regulated  quite  as  strictly  in 
Canada  as  in  France.  The  artisans  of  the  towns 
w«e  organized  mto  juris  or  guilds,  and  elected  a 
master  for  each  trade.  These  masters  were 
lesponoble  to  the  civil  authorities  for  the  proper 
quality  of  the  work  done  and  for  the  observance  of 
all  the  regulations  which  were  promulgated  by  the 
hitendant  or  the  councfl  from  time  to  time. 

This  relative  profidency  in  home  industry 
accounts  in  part  for  the  tardy  progress  of  the  col- 
ony in  the  matter  of  large  industrial  establish- 
ments. But  there  were  other  handkaps.  For 


AGRICULTURE,  INDUSTRY,  AND  TRADE  195 
one  thing,  the  Paris  authorities  were  not  anxious 
to  see  the  colony  become  industrially  self-sustain- 
ing. Colbert  in  his  earliest  instructions  to  Takm 
wrote  as  though  this  were  the  royal  poller,  but  no 
other  minister  ever  hinted  at  such  a  desire.  Rather 
it  was  thought  best  that  the  colony  should  confine 
itself  to  the  production  of  raw  materials,  leaving 
it  to  France  to  supply  manufactured  wares  in 
return.  The  mocantilist  doctrine  that  a  colony 
existed  for  the  benefit  of  the  mother  country  was 
gospel  at  Fontainebleau.  Ey&n  Mcmtcahn,  a  man 
of  liberal  inclinations,  expressed  this  idea  with 
undiminished  vigor  in  a  day  when  its  evil  results 
must  have  been  apparent  to  the  naked  eye.  "  Let 
us  beware,"  he  wrote,  "how  we  allow  the  establish- 
ment of  industries  in  Canada  or  she  will  become 
proud  and  mutinous  like  the  English  colonies. 
So  long  as  France  is  a  nursery  to  Canada,  let  not 
the  Canadians  be  allowed  to  trade  but  kept  to 
their  laborious  life  and  military  services.** 

The  exclusion  of  the  Huguenots  from  Canada 
was  another  industrial  misfortune.  A  few  Hugue- 
not artisans  came  to  Quebec  from  Rochelle  at 
an  early  date,  and  had  they  been  weloomed, 
more  would  soon  have  followed.  But  they  were 
promptly  deported.  From  an  ecoiiomic  standpoint 


196  CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
this  was  an  unfortunate  policy.  The  Huguenots 
were  resourc^ul  workmen,  skilled  in  many  trades. 
They  would  have  supplied  the  colony  with  a  vigor- 
ous and  enterprising  stock.  But  the  interests 
id  orthodoxy  in  religion  were  paramount  with  the 
authorities,  and  they  kept  from  Canada  the  one 
dass  of  settlers  whk^  most  desired  to  come. 
Many  of  those  same  Huguenots  went  to  England, 
and  evory  student  of  economic  history  knows  how 
greatly  they  contributed  to  the  upbuilding  of 
England's  lata  mxpr&nBcy  in  the  textile  and 
related  industries. 

If  we  turn  to  the  field  of  oommeroe,  the  spirit  ol 
restriction  appears  as  prominently  as  in  the  domain 
of  industry.  The  Company  of  One  Hundred 
Associates,  during  its  thirty  years  of  control, 
allowed  no  one  to  proceed  to  Quebec  except  on  its 
own  vessels,  and  nothing  could  be  imported 
except  through  its  storehouses.  Its  successor, 
the  Company  of  the  West  Indies,  which  dominated 
colonial  conmierce  from  1664  to  1669,  was  not  a 
whit  more  liberal.  Even  under  the  system  of 
royal  government,  the  consistent  keynotes  of 
commercial  policy  were  regulation,  paternalism, 
and  monopoly. 
This  is  in  no  seoae  surprising.   Spain  had 


AGRICULTURE.  INDUSTRY,  AND  TRADE  IW 
first  given  to  tlie  world  tliis  pohcy  of  cpouQcifiial 
constraint  and  the  great  enrichment  of  the  Spanidi 
monarchy  was  evnywhere  held  to  be  its  outcome. 
France,  by  reason  of  h»  similar'  political  and 
administrative  system,  found  it  ea^  to  drift 
into  the  wake  of  the  Spanish  example.  The 
official  classes  in  England  and  Holland  would  fain 
have  had  these  countries  do  likewise,  but  private 
initiative  and  oiterprise  proved  too  strong  in 
the  end.   As  for  New  France,  there  were  spells 
during  which  the  grip  of  the  trading  monopolies 
relaxed,  but  these  lucid  intervals  were  never 
very  long.    When  the  Company  of  the  West 
Indies  became  bankrupt  in  1669,  the  trade  between 
New  France  and  Old  was  ostensibly  thrown  open 
to  the  traders  of  both  countries,  and  for  the  moment 
this  freedom  gave  Colbert  and  his  Canadian 
apostle.  Talon,  an  opportunity  to  carry  out  their 
ideas  of  commercial  upbuilding. 

The  great  minister  had  as  his  ideal  the  creation 
of  a  huge  fleet  of  merchant  vessels,  built  and 
operated  by  Frenchmen,  which  would  to  all 
quarters  of  the  globe,  bringing  raw  products  to 
France  and  taking  manufactured  WBim  in  return. 
It  was  under  the  inspiration  of  this  Ideal  that 
Talon  built  at  Quebec  a  small  vessel  and,  having 


198       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

freighted  it  with  lumber,  fish,  com,  and  dried 
peaae»  sent  it  off  to  the  French  West  Indies. 
After  taking  on  board  a  cargo  of  sugar,  the  vessel 
was  then  to  proceed  to  France  and,  exchanging 
the  sugar  for  goods  which  were  needed  in  the 
regions  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  it  was  to  return  to 
Quebec.  The  intendant's  plans  for  this  triangular 
trade  were  well  conceived,  and  in  a  general  way 
they  aimed  at  just  what  the  English  colonies 
along  the  Atlantic  seaboard  were  beginning  to 
do  at  the  time.  The  keels  of  other  ships  were 
being  laid  at  Quebec  and  the  officials  were  dreaming 
of  great  maritime  achievements.  But  as  usual 
the  enterprise  never  got  beyond  the  sailing  of  the 
first  vessel,  for  its  voyage  did  not  yield  a  profit. 

The  ostensible  throwing-open  of  the  colonial 
trade,  moreover,  did  not  actually  change  to  any 
great  extent  the  old  system  of  paternalism  and 
monopoly.  Commercial  comy^anies  no  longer  con- 
trolled the  channels  trar  tation,  it  is  true, 
but  the  royal  gove^-ment  *  -  ot  minded  to  let 
everything  take  its  own  course.  So  the  trade  was 
taxed  for  the  benefit  of  the  royal  treasury,  and  the 
privilege  o  collecting  the  taxes,  according  to  the 
custom  <rf  the  old  regime,  was  fanned  out.  All 
the  commerce  of  the  colony,  imports  and  exports. 


AGRICULTURE,  INDUSTRY,  AND  TRADE  199 
had  to  pass  through  the  hands  of  these  farmers-of- 
the-revenue  who  levied  ten  per  cent  <»i  all  goods 
coming  and  kept  for  the  royal  treasury  one- 
quarter  of  the  price  fixed  for  all  skins  expartdd. 
Traders  as  a  rule  were  not  permitted  to  sh^  their 
furs  dtfectly  to  France.  They  turned  them  in  to 
farmers-of-the-revenue  at  Quebec,  where  they 
received  the  price  as  fixed  by  ordinance,  less  one- 
quarter.   This  price  th^  usually  took  in  bills  of 
exchange  on  Paris  which  they  handed  over  to  the 
colonial  merchants  in  payment  for  goods,  and 
which  the  merchants  in  turn  sent  home  to  France 
to  pay  for  new  stocks.   Nor  were  the  authorities 
content  with  the  mere  fixing  of  prices.  By 
ordinance  they  also  set  the  rate  of  profit  which 
traders  should  have  upon  all  imported  wares 
brought  into  the  colony.    This  rate  of  profit  was 
fixed  at  sixty-five  per  cent,  but  the  traders  had  no 
compunction  in  going  above  it  whenever  they  saw 
an  opportunity  which  was  not  likely  to  be  dis- 
covered.  As  far  as  the  forest  trade  was  caoeaaed, 
the  regulation  was,  of  course,  absurd. 

Every  year,  about  the  beginning  of  May,  the 
first  ships  left  France  for  the  St.  Lawr^ce  with 
general  cargoes  corsisting  of  goods  for  the  oolinusts 
themselves  and  for  the  Indians,  as  weD  aa  laijge 


^00       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

quantities  of  brandy.  "When  they  arrived  at  Que- 
beC}  the  vessels  were  met  by  the  merchants  of  the 
town  and  by  those  who  had  come  from  Three 
Rivers  and  Montreal.  For  a  fortnight  lively 
trading  took  place.  Then  the  goods  which  had 
been  bought  by  the  merchants  of  Montreal  and 
Three  Riven  were  loaded  upon  small  barques  and 
brou^t  to  these  towns  to  be  in  readiness 
for  the  annual  fairs  when  the  eowreurs^boii 
and  their  Indians  came  down  to  trade  in  the  late 
summer.  As  for  the  vessds  which  had  come 
from  France,  these  were  dther  loaded  with  timbw 
or  furs  and  set  off  directly  h<»ne  again,  or  dse 
they  departed  light  to  Cape  Bi«ton  and  took 
cargoes  of  coal  for  the  French  T  Indies,  whore 
the  refining  of  sugar  occasioned  a  4emand  for  fuel. 
The  last  ships  l^t  in  November,  and  for  seven 
months  the  colony  was  cut  off  from  Europe. 

Trade  at  Quebec,  while  technically  open  to 
any  one  who  would  '^ay  the  duties  and  observe 
the  regulations  as  to  rates  of  profit,  was  actually 
in  the  hands  of  a  fcv  merchants  who  had  large 
warehouses  and  who  took  the  greater  part  of  what 
the  ships  brought  in.  These  men  were,  in  turn, 
affiliated  more  or  less  closely  with  the  great 
trading  houses  which  sent  goods  from  Rouen  or 


AGRICULTURE.  INDUSTRY.  AND  TRADE  201 
Rochelle,  so  that  the  monopoly  wm  nearly  ai  mm- 
clad  as  when  commercial  companies  were  in  oontroL 
When  an  outsider  broke  into  the  charmed  dicle,  as 
happened  occasionally,  there  was  usually  some 
way  of  hustling  him  out  again  by  means  either  fair 
or  foul.   The  mon<^x>liBts  made  large  prt^ts, 
and  many  of  them,  after  th^  had  accumulated  a 
fortune,  went  home  to  France.   "I  have  known 
twenty  of  these  pedUtfs,"  quoth  La  H<mtan, 
"that  had  not  above  a  thousand  crowns  stock  when 
I  arrived  at  Quebec  in  the  year  168S  and  when 
I  left  that  place  had  got  to  the  tune  of  twelve 
thousand  crowns. 

Glancing  over  the  whole  course  of  agriculture, 
industry,  and  commerce  in  New  France  from  the 
time  when  Champlain  built  his  little  post  at 
the  foot  of  Cape  Diamond  until  the  day  when 
the  fleur-de-b's  fluttered  down  from  the  heights 
above,  the  historian  finds  that  there  is  one  word 
which  sums  up  the  chief  cause  of  the  colony's  , 
economic  weakness.  That  word  is  "paternalism. " 
The  Administration  tried  to  take  the  place  of 
Providence.  It  was  as  omnipresent  and  its  ways 
were  as  inscrutable.  Like  as  a  father  chasteneth 
his  children,  so  the  King  and  his  officials  felt  it 
theu-  duty  to  chasten  every  show  of  private  initia- 


iOi       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

live  which  did  not  direct  itself  along  the  grooves 
that  they  had  marked  out  for  the  colony  to 
follow.  By  trying  to  order  everything  they 
eventually  succeeded  in  ordering  nothing  aright. 


CHAPTER  XI 

HOW  THE  PEOPLE  LIVED 

In  New  France  there  were  no  privileged  orders. 
This,  indeed,  was  the  most  marked  difference 
between  the  social  organization  of  the  home  land 
and  that  of  the  colony.    There  were  social  distinc- 
tions in  Canada,  to  be  sure,  but  the  boundaries 
I  ^tween  different  elements  of  the  population  were 
not  rigid;  there  were  no  privileges  based  ^  pon  the 
laws  of  the  land,  and  no  impenetrable  barrier  sep- 
arated one  class  from  another.   Men  could  rise  by 
their  own  efforts  or  come  down  through  their  own 
defaults;  their  places  in  the  community  were  not 
determined  for  them  by  the  accident  of  birth  as 
was  the  case  in  the  older  land.   Some  of  the  most 
successful  figures  in  the  public  and  business  affairs 
of  New  France,  some  of  the  soda!  leaders,  some  of 
those  who  attained  the  hi^est  rank  In  the  ndHeate, 
came  of  relativdy  humble  parentage. 
In  France  of  the  sixteoitli  and  seventeenth 

MS 


«04       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 


centuries  the  chief  offidala  of  state,  the  seigneurs, 
the  higher  ecclesiasticf.  even  the  officers  of  the 
army  and  the  marine,  were  alwayf  drawn  from  the 
nobility.  In  the  colony  this  was  veiy  far  from 
being  the  case.  Some  colonial  offidak  and  a  few 
of  the  seigneurs  were  among  the  numoout  nobleMe 
of  France  before  they  came,  and  they  of  course 
retained  their  social  rank  in  the  new  envmmment. 
Others  were  raised  to  this  rank  by  the  King, 
usually  for  distinguished  services  in  the  cdony 
and  <m  the  reoommendatkm  of  the  governs  or 
the  intendant.  But,  even  if  taken  all  together, 
these  men  constituted  a  very  small  proportion 
of  the  people  in  New  France.  Even  among  the 
seigneurs  the  great  majority  of  these  landed 
gentlemen  came  from  the  ranks  of  the  people,  and 
not  one  in  ten  was  a  member  oi  the  noblesse. 
There  was,  therefore,  a  social  solidarity,  a  spirit 
of  fraternity,  and  a  feeling  of  universal  comrade- 
ship among  them  which  was  altogether  lacking  at 
home. 

The  pivot  of  social  life  in  New  France  was  the 
settlement  at  Quebec.  This  was  the  colonial 
capital,  the  seat  of  the  governor  and  of  the  council, 
the  only  town  in  the  colony  large  enough  to  have 
all  the  trappings  and  tinsel  of  a  well-rounded  social 


HOW  THE  PEOPLE  LIVED  Mff 
set.   Here,  too,  aune  lome  of  the  te^Miin  to 
spend  the  winter  monthe.  The  royal  oBdakp  the 
oflScen  of  the  garriaon,  the  JeacUng  mefchaata, 
the  judgee,  the  notarief  and  a  few  other  prale^ 
Monal  men — these  with  their  families  made  up  an 
^te  which  managed  to  edio,  even  if  MMnewhat 
faintly,  the  pomp  and  ^amor  ot  VemiUei.  Que- 
bec, from  all  accounts,  was  livdy  in  the  long 
winteis.  Its  peoj^  who  were  shut  off  from  all 
intercourse  with  Europe  for  many  months  at  a 
time*  soon  learned  the  art  of  providing  for  their 
own  recreation  and  amusement.   The  knight- 
cnant  La  Hontan  speaks  enthusiastically  of  the 
events  in  the  life  of  this  miniature  society,  of 
the  dinners  and  dances,  the  salons  and  receptions, 
the  intrigues,  rivalries,  and  flirtations,  all  of  which 
were  veil  suited  to  his  Bohemian  tastes.  But 
the  clergy  frowned  upon  this  levity,  of  which  th^ 
believed  there  was  far  too  much.    On  one  or 
two  occasions  they  even  laid  a  rigorous  and  re- 
straining hand  upon  activities  of  which  they  dis- 
approved, notably  when  the  young  officers  of  the 
Quebec  garrison  undertook  an  amateur  perform- 
ance of  MoIi^*s  TaHuffe  in  1694.   At  Montreal 
and  Three  Rivers,  the  two  nnaller  towns  of  the 
colony,  the  sodal  circle  was  more  contracted  and 


206       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

correspondingly  less  brilliant.  The  capital,  indeed, 
had  no  rival. 

Only  a  small  part  of  the  population,  however, 
lived  in  the  towns.    At  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century  the  census  (1706)  showed  a 
total  of  16,417,  of  whom  less  than  SOOO  were  in 
the  three  chief  settlements.    The  others  were 
scattered  along  both  hanks  of  the  St.  Lawrence, 
but  chiefly  on  the  northern  shore,  with  the  houses 
grouped  into  cdtes  or  little  villages  which  almost 
touched  elbows  along  the  banks  of  the  stream. 
In  each  of  these  hamlets  the  manor-house  or  home 
of  the  seigneur,  although  not  a  mansion  by  any 
means,  was  the  focus  of  social  life.  Sometimes 
built  of  timber  but  more  often  of  stone,  with 
dimensions  rarely  exceeding  twenty  feet  by  forty, 
it  was  not  much  more  pretentious  than  the  homes 
of  the  more  prosperous  and  thrifty  among  the 
seigneur*s  dependents.    Its  three  or  four  spacious 
rooms  were,  however,  more  comfortably  equipped 
with  furniture  which  in  many  cases  had  been 
brought  from  France.    Socially,  the  seigneur  and 
his  family  did  not  stand  apart  from  his  neighbors. 
All  went  to  the  same  church,  took  part  in  the  same 
amusements  upon  days  of  festival,  and  not  infre- 
quently worked  together  at  the  common  of 


HOW  THE  PEOPLE  LIVED  W! 
clearing  the  lands.  Sons  and  daughters  of  the 
seigneurs,  often  intermarried  with  those  of  habi- 
tants in  the  seigneuiy  or  of  traders  in  the  towns. 
Thrre  was  no  social  impaaae  such  as  existed  in 
Fruice  among  the  various  elements  in  a  com- 
mimity. 

As  for  the  habitants,  the  people  who  cleared 
and  cultivated  the  lands  of  the  seigneuries,  they 
worked  and  lived  and  dressed  as  pioneers  are 
wont  to  do.    Their  homes  were  commonly  built  of 
feUed  timber  or  of  rough-hewn  stone,  solid,  low, 
stocky  buildings,  usually  about  twenty  by  forty 
feet  or  thereabouts  in  size,  with  a  single  doorway 
and  very  few  windows.    The  roofs  were  steep- 
pitched,  with  a  dormer  window  or  two  thrust  out 
on  either  side,  the  eaves  projecting  well  over  the 
walls  in  such  manner  as  to  give  the  structures  a 
half-bungalow  appearance.    With  almost  religious 
punctuality  the  habitants  whitewashed  the  out- 
sif^e  of  their  walls  every  spring,  so  that  from  the 
river  the  country  houses  looked  trim  and  neat  at 
all  seasons.   Between  the  river  and  the  uplands 
ran  the  roadway,  close  to  which  the  habitants  set 
their  ccmspicuous  dwellings  with  only  in  rare 
cases  a  grass  plot  or  shade  tree  at  the  doc».  In 
winter  they  bore  the  full  bbst  of  the  winds  that 


208      CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FR/NCE 

drove  across  the  expanse  of  frozen  stream  in  front 
of  them;  in  summer  the  hot  smi  blazed  relentlessly 
upon  the  low  roofs.  As  ich  house  stood  but  a 
few  rods  from  its  neighbor  on  either  nde,  the 
colony  thuB  took  on  the  appearance  of  one  long» 
straggling,  village  street  The  habitant  liked  to 
be  near  his  f dlows,  partly  for  his  own  safety  against 
marauding  redskins,  but  chiefly  because  the 
colony  was  at  best  a  lonely  place  in  the  long  cold 
season  when  there  was  little  for  any  one  to  do. 

Behind  each  house  was  a  small  addition  used  as 
a  storoYMm.  Not  far  away  were  the  bam  and  the 
stable,  built  always  of  untrimmed  logs,  the  inter- 
vening chinks  securely  filled  with  clay  or  mortar. 
There  was  also  a  root-house,  half-sunk  in  thr 
ground  or  burrowed  into  the  slope  of  a  hill,  where 
the  habitant  kept  his  potatoes  and  vegetables 
secure  from  the  frost  through  the  winter.  Most 
of  the  habitants  likewise  had  their  own  bake- 
ovens,  set  a  convenient  distance  behind  the 
house  and  rising  four  or  five  feet  from  the  ground. 
These  they  built  roughly  of  boulders  and  plastered 
with  clay.  With  an  abundance  of  wood  from 
the  virgin  forests  they  would  build  a  roaring  fire 
in  these  ovens  and  finish  the  whole  week's  baking 
at  one  time.    The  habitant  would  often  endoi* 


HOW  THE  PEOPLE  LIVED  209 
a  small  plot  of  ground  surrounding  the  house  and 
outbuildings  with  a  fence  of  piled  stones  or  gplit 
rails,  and  in  one  comer  he  would  plant  his  kitchco- 
garden. 

Within  the  dwelling-house  there  were  usually 
two,  and  never  more  than  three,  rooms  on  the 
ground  floor.   The  doorway  opened  into  the  great 
room  of  the  house,  parlor,  dining-room,  and 
kitchen  combined.   A  "living"  room  it  surely 
was!  In  the  better  houses,  however,  this  room 
was  divided,  with  the  kitchen  partitioned  off 
from  the  rest.   Most  of  the  furnishings  were  the 
products  of  the  colony  and  chiefly  <a  the  family's 
own  workmanship.   The  floor  was  of  hewn 
timber,  rubbed  and  scrubbed  to  smoothness.  A 
woolen  rug  or  several  of  them,  always  of  vivid 
hues,  covmi  the  greater  part  of  it.   There  were 
the  family  dinner-table  of  hewn  pine,  chairs  made 
of  pine  saplings  with  seats  of  rushes  or  woven 
underbark,  and  often  in  the  comer  a  couch  that 
would  serve  as  an  extra  bed  at  night.   Pictures  of 
saints  hung  on  the  walls,  sharing  the  space  with  a 
crucifix,  but  often  having  for  ominous  company 
the  habitant's  flint-lock  and  his  powder-horL 
hanging  from  the  beams.    At  one  end  of  the 
room  was  the  fireplace  and  hearth,  the  sde  means 


£10       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  ^TRANCE 

of  heating  the  place,  and  usually  the  only  means 
of  cooking  as  well.  Around  it  hung  the  array  of 
pots  and  pans,  almost  the  only  things  in  the  house 
which  the  habitant  and  his  family  were  not  able 
to  make  for  themselves.  The  lack  of  colonial 
industries  had  the  advantage  of  throwing  each 
home  upon  its  own  resources,  and  the  people 
developed  great  versatility  in  the  cruder  arts  of 
oraftsmanship . 

Upstairs,  and  reached  by  a  ladder,  was  a  loft  or 
attic  running  the  full  area  of  the  house,  but  so 
low  that  one  could  touch  the  rafters  everywhere. 
Here  the  children,  often  a  dozen  or  more  of  them, 
were  stowed  away  at  night  on  mattresses  of  suaw 
or  feathers  laid  along  the  floor.  As  the  windows 
were  securely  fastened,  even  in  the  coldest  weather 
this  attic  was  warm,  if  not  altogether  hygienic. 
The  love  of  fresh  air  in  his  dwelling  was  not 
among  the  habitant's  virtues.  Evory  on*  went 
to  bed  shortly  after  daikness  fell  upon  the  land, 
and  all  rose  with  the  sun.  Even  visits  and  festivi- 
ties  were  not  at  that  time  prolonged  into  the 
night  as  they  are  nowadays.  Therein,  however. 
New  France  did  not  diflFer  from  other  lands.  In 
the  seventeenth  century  most  of  the  world  went  to 
bed  at  nightfall  because  there  was  nothing  else  to 


HOW  THE  PEOPLE  LIVED  211 
do,  and  no  easy  or  inexpensive  artificial  light. 
Candles  were  in  use,  to  be  sure,  but  a  great  many 
more  of  them  were  burned  on  the  altars  of  the 
churches  than  in  the  homes  of  the  people.  For  his 
reading,  the  habitant  depended  upon  the  priest, 
and  for  his  writing,  upon  the  notary. 

Clothing  was  almost  wholly  made  at  home.  It 
was  warm  and  durable,  as  well  as  somewhat  dis- 
tinctive and  picturesque.    Every  parish  had  spin- 
ning wheels  and  handlooms  m  some  of  its  homes  on 
which  the  women  turned  out  the  heavy  druggets  or 
6toffes  du  paya  from  which  most  of  the  men's 
clothing  was  made.   A  great  fabric  it  was,  this 
homespun,  with  nothing  but  wool  in  it,  not  attrac- 
tive m  pattern  but  able  to  stand  no  end  of  wear. 
It  was  fashioned  for  the  habitant's  use  into  roomy 
trousers  and  a  long  frock  coat  reaching  to  the 
knees  which  he  tied  around  his  waist  with  a  belt 
of  leather  or  <rf  knitted  yam.    The  women  also 
used  this  Hoffe  for  skirts,  but  their  waists  and 
summer  dresses  were  of  calico,  homemade  as  well. 
As  for  the  children,  most  of  them  ran  about  in  the 
summer  months  wearing  next  to  nothing  at  all.  A 
single  garment  without  sleeves  and  reaching  to 
the  knees  was  all  that  covered  their  nakedness. 
For  all  ages  and  for  both  sexes  there  were  furs  in 


212      CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

plenty  for  winter  use.  Beaver  skins  were  cheap, 
in  some  years  about  as  cheap  as  cloth.  When 
properly  treated  they  were  soft  and  pliable,  and 
easily  made  into  clothes,  caps,  and  mittens. 

Most  of  the  footwear  was  made  at  home,  usually 
from  deerhides.  In  winter  every  one  wore  the 
bottes  sauvagesy  or  oiled  moccasins  laced  up  half- 
way or  more  to  the  knees.  They  were  proof 
against  cold  and  were  serviceable  for  use  with  snow- 
shoes.  Between  them  and  his  feet  the  habitant 
wore  two  or  more  pairs  of  heavy  woolen  socks 
made  from  coarse  homespun  yam.  In  summer  the 
women  and  children  of  the  rural  communities 
usually  went  barefoot  so  that  the  soles  of  their  feet 
grew  as  tough  as  pigskin;  the  men  sometimes  did 
likewise,  but  more  frequently  they  wore,  in  the 
fields  or  in  the  forest,  dogs  made  of  cowhide. 

Oa  tltt  week-days  of  summ^  every  one  wore  a 
straw  hat  which  the  womoi  of  the  housefadd  spent 
part  of  each  winter  in  plaiting.  In  cold  weather 
the  knitted  tuque  made  in  vivid  colors  was  the 
great  favorite.  It  was  warm  and  picturesque. 
Each  section  of  the  colony  had  its  own  color;  the 
habitants  in  the  vicinity  of  Quebec  wore  blue 
tuquesy  while  those  around  Montreal  preferred  red. 
The  apparel  of  the  people  was  thus  in  general 


HOW  THE  PEOPLE  LIVED  «18 
adapted  to  the  countiy,  and  it  had  a  distinctive&eM 
that  has  not  yet  altogether  passed  away. 

On  Sundays  and  on  the  numerous  days  of  festi- 
val,  however,  the  habitant  and  his  family  brought 
out  their  best.   To  Mass  the  m«Hi  wore  dothes  of 
better  texture  and  high  beaver  hats,  the  women 
appeared  in  their  brighter  plumage  of  dresses 
with  ribbons  and  laces  imported  from  France. 
Such  finery  was  brought  over  in  so  large  a  quan- 
tity that  more  than  one  rrUmoire  to  the  home 
government  censured  the  "spirit  of  extravagance" 
of  which  this  was  one  outward  manifestation.  In 
the  towns  the  officials  and  the  well-to-do  mer- 
chants dressed  elaborately  on  all  occasions  of 
ceremony,  with   scarlet   cloaks   and  perukes, 
buckled  slippers  and  silk  stockings.   In  early 
Canada  there  was  no  austerity  of  garb  such  as  we 
find  in  Puritan  New  England.    New  Prance  on  a 
jour  defete  was  a  blaze  of  color. 

As  for  his  daily  fare,  the  habitant  was  never 
badly  off  even  in  the  years  when  harvests  were 
poor.  He  had  food  that  was  more  nourishing  and 
more  abundant  than  the  French  peasant  had  at 
home.  Bread  was  made  from  both  wheat  and  rye 
flour,  the  p»-oduct  of  the  seigneurial  mills.  Com 
eakes  w«w  baked  in  Indian  f ashicm  ham  ground 


in 


£14       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
maize.    Fat  salted  pork  was  a  staple  during  the 
winter,  and  nearly  every  habitant  laid  away  each 
autumn  a  smoked  supply  oi  eels  from  the  river. 
Game  of  all  sorts  he  could  get  with  little  trouble  at 
any  time,  wild  ducks  and  geese,  partridges,  for 
there  v/ere  in  those  days  no  game  laws  to  protect 
them.    In  the  early  winter,  likewise,  it  was  indeed 
a  luckless  habitant  who  could  not  also  get  a  caribou 
or  two  for  his  larder.    FoUowing  the  Indian 
custom,  the  venison  was  smoked  and  hung  on  the 
kitchen  beams,  where  it  kept  for  months  until 
needed.   Salted  or  smoked  fish  had  also  to  be 
provided  for  family  use,  since  the  usages  of  the 
Church  required  that  meat  shcmid  not  be  used 
upon  numerous  fast-days. 

Vegetables  of  many  varieties  were  grown  in 
New  France,  where  the  warm,  sandy,  virgin  soil 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  region  was  splendidly  suited 
for  this  branch  of  husbandry.  Peas  were  the  great 
stand-by,  and  in  the  old  days  whole  families  were 
reared  upon  soupe  aux  pais,  which  was,  and  may 
even  still  be  said  to  be,  the  national  dish  of  the 
French  Cana  lians.  Beans,  cucumbers,  melons,  and 
a  dozen  otaer  products  were  also  grown  in  the 
family  gardens.  There  were  potatoes,  which  the 
habitant  called  patateg  and  not  pommes  de  tene. 


HOW  THE  PEOPLE  LIVED  nu 
but  th^  were  almost  a  rarity  until  the  closing  days 
<rf  the  Old  Regime.  Wild  fruits,  chiefly  raspberries, 
blueberries,  and  wild  grapes,  grew  in  abundance 
among  the  foothills  and  were  gathered  in  great 
quantities  every  summer.  There  was  not  much 
orchard  fruit,  although  some  seedling  trees  were 
brought  from  France  and  had  managed  to  become 
acclimated. 

On  the  whole,  even  in  the  hrmbler  homes 
there  was  no  need  for  any  one  to  go  hungry.  The 
daily  fare  of  the  people  was  not  of  great  variety, 
but  it  was  nourishing,  and  there  was  plenty  of  it 
save  in  rare  instances.    More  than  one  visitor  to 
the  colony  was  impressed  by  the  rude  comfort 
in  which  the  people  lived,  even  though  they 
made  no  pretense  of  being  well-to-do.   "In  New 
France,"  wrote  Charlevoix,  "poverty  is  hidden 
behind  an  air  of  comfort,'*  while  the  gos8q>y  La 
Hontan  was  of  the  opinion  that  "the  boors  of  these 
seigneuries  live  with  greater  comfort  than  an 
infinity  of  the  gentlemen  in  Prance."  Occasion- 
ally,  when  the  men  w«e  taken  from  the  fidds  to 
serve  in  the  defense  of  the  cokmy  against  the 
En^ish  attadcs,  the  harvests  were  small  and 
the  people  had  to  spond  the  oisuing  winter  oo 
abort  raticms.  Yet.  as  the  authorities  assured 


«16      CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

the  King,  they  were  "robust,  vigorous,  and  aUo 
in  time  of  need  to  live  on  little." 

As  for  beverages,  the  habitant  was  inordinately 
fond  of  sour  milk.   Tea  was  scarce  and  costly. 
Brandy  was  imported  in  huge  quantities*  and  not 
all  this  eau-de-vie,  as  some  writers  unagine,  went 
into  the  Indian  trade.    The  people  themselves 
consumed  most  of  it.   Every  parish  m  the  cd<my 
had  its  grog-shop;  in  1725  the  King  ordered  that 
no  parish  should  have  more  than  two.  Quebec 
had  a  dozen  or  more,  and  complaint  was  made 
that  the  people  flocked  to  these  resorU  early  in  the 
morning,  thus  rendering  themselves  unfit  for  work 
during  most  <rf  the  day,  and  soon  ruming  their 
health  into  the  bargain.   There  is  no  doubt  that 
the  people  of  New  Prance  were  fond  of  the  flagon, 
for  not  only  the  priests  but  the  civil  authorities 
complained  of  this  failing.    Idleness  due  to  the 
numerous  holidays  and  to  the  long  winters  com- 
bined with  the  tradition  of  hospitality  to  encour- 
age this  taste.    The  habitants  were  fond  of  visiting 
one  another,  and  hospitality  demanded  on  every 
such  occasion  the  proflFer  of  something  to  drink. 
Od  the  other  hand,  the  scenes  of  debauchery 
which  a  few  chroniclers  have  described  were  not 
typical  of  the  colony  the  year  round.   When  the 


HOW  THE  PEOl'LE  LIVED  ftn 
•hipa  came  in  with  their  cargoeB.  there  was  a 
great  indulgeiice  in  feasting  and  drink,  and  the 
excesses  at  this  time  were  sure  to  impress  the 
casual  visitor.  But  when  the  fleet  had  weighed 
anchor  and  departed  for  France,  there  was  a 
quick  return  to  the  former  quietness  atd  to  a 
reasonable  measure  of  sobriety. 

Tobacco  was  used  freely.    "Every  farmer," 
wrote  Kalm,  "plants  a  quantity  of  tobacco  near 
his  house  because  it  is  universally  smoked.  Boys 
of  twelve  years  of  age  often  run  about  with  the 
pipe  in  their  mouths.  '*   The  women  were  smokers, 
too,  but  more  commonly  they  used  tobacco  in  the 
form  of  snuff.    In  those  days,  as  in  our  own,  this 
French-Canadian  tobacco  was  strong  stuff,  cured 
in  the  sun  till  the  leaves  were  black,  and  when 
smoked  emitting  an  odor  that  scented  the  whole 
parish.    The  art  of  smoking  a  pipe  was  one  of 
several  profiUess  habits  which  the  Frenchman  lost 
little  time  in  acquiring  from  his  Indian  friends. 

This  convivial  temperament  of  the  inhabitante 
of  New  France  has  been  noted  by  moie  than  one 
contemporary.  The  people  did  not  q>end  all 
their  energies  and  time  at  hard  kOwr.  Frwn 
October,  whoi  the  crops  were  in,  until  May,  wh«i 
the  season  of  seedtime  came  agam,  there  was. 


rt 


1 


M  I 


tl8  CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 
indeed,  little  hard  work  for  them  to  do.  Asid« 
from  the  cutting  of  firewood  and  the  few  houae- 
hold  chores  the  day  was  free,  and  the  habitants 
therefore  spent  it  in  driving  about  and  vintiiig 
neighbors,  drinking  and  smoking,  dancing  and 
playing  cards.  Winter,  according^,  was  the 
great  social  season  in  the  countiy  as  well  as  in 
the  town. 

The  chief  festivities  occurred  at  Mj^^^^tmag^^ 
Cnristmas,  Easter,  and  May  Day.   Of  these^  the 
first  and  the  last  were  cbsely  connected  with 
the  seigneurial  system.   On  Michaefanas  the  hab* 
itant  came  to  pay  the  annual  rental  for  his  lands; 
on  May  Day  he  rendered  the  Maypole  hom- 
age which  has  been  already  described.  Christ- 
mas and  Easter  were  the  great  festivals  of  the 
Church  and  as  such  were  celebrated  with  religious 
fervor  and  solenmity.  In  addition,  minor  festivals, 
chiefly  religious  in  character,  were  numerous,  so 
much  so  that  their  frequency  even  in  the  months 
of  cultivation  was  the  subject  of  complaint  by 
the  civil  authorities,  who  felt  that  these  holidays 
took  altogether  too  much  time  froui  labor.  Sun- 
day was  a  day  not  only  of  worship  but  of  recrea- 
tion.   Clad  in  his  best  raiment,  every  one  went 
to  Mass,  whatever  the  distance  or  the  weather. 


HOW  THE  PEOPLE  LIVED  819 
The  parish  church  indeed  was  the  emblem  of  vfl- 
lage  solidarity,  for  it  gathered  within  ill  waOt 
each  Sunday  morning  all  eeses  and  ages  and  ranks. 
The  habitant  did  net  separate  his  KUgion  Irom  Ml 
work  or  his  amuseHMuts;  the  outward  manifee- 
UtioBa  el  his  faith  weve  TOt  to  his  mind  things  of 
anoite  wofki;  the  dwch  and  its  priests  were 
the  center  ahd  s^  of  h»  little  community.  The 
whole  oountrynde  gatiKrod  about  the  church 
doors  after  the  service  ii4ile  the  capitaine  de  la 
the  :  ,-4  repwMiMiUtive  ef  the  intendant, 
lead  the  oeu  jcs  that  had  Iheen  sent  to  him  from 
tlte  seato  ol  the  nqghty  at  the  CMteau  de  St. 
Louis.   That  duty  over,  there  was  a  garrulous 
inteidiange  of  local  gossip  with  a  retaihng  of  such 
news  as  had  dribbled  through  from  France.  The 
crowd  then  melted  away  in  groups  to  spend  the 
rest  of  the  day  in  games  or  dancing  or  in  friendly 
visits  of  one  family  with  another. 

Especially  popular  among  the  young  people  of 
each  parish  were  the  corvSes  rScrSoHves,  or  "bees" 
as  we  "all  them  nowadays  in  our  rural  communi- 
ties. Tiiere  were  the  epuchlette  or  corn-husking, 
the  brayage  or  flax-beating,  and  others  of  the  same 
sort.  The  harvest-home  or  grosse-gerbe,  cele- 
brated when  the  hutt  load  had  been  brought 


220      CRUSADERS  OP  NEW  FRANCE 

in  from  the  fields,  and  the  IgnoUe  or  welcoming 
of  the  New  Year,  were  also  occasions  of  goodwill, 
noise,  and  revelry.    Dancing  was  by  all  odds 
the  most  popular  pastime,  and  every  parish  had 
its  fiddler,  who  was  quite  as  indispensable  a  factor 
in  the  life  of  the  village  as  either  the  smith  or  the 
notary.    Every  wedding  was  the  occasion  fox 
terpsichorean  festivities  which  lasted  all  day  long. 
The  habitant  liked  to  sing,  especially  when  work- 
ing with  others  in  the  woods  or  when  on  the  march. 
The  voyageurs  relieved  the  tedium  wf  their  l(»ig 
journeys  by  breaking  into  song  at  intervals.  But 
the  popular  rq>ertoire  was  limited  to  a  few  fdk- 
songs,  most  of  th«n  songs  of  Old  France.  They 
were  easy  to  learn,  simple  to  sing,  but  sprightly  and 
melodious.   Some  of  th^  have  remained  on  the 
lips  and  in  the  hearts  of  the  French-Canadian 
race  for  over  two  hundred  years.   Those  who  do 
not  know  the  Claire  fontaine  and  Ma  bouli 
Toulant  have  never  known  French  Canada.  The 
for^MT  of  today  still  goes  to  the  woods  chanting 
the  MaJbrouek  »*m  vort-en  guerre  which  his  ancestors 
caroled  in  the  days  of  Blenheim  and  Malplaquet. 
When  the  habitant  sang,  moreover,  it  was  in 
no  pianissimo  tones;  he  was  lusty  and  chetrful 
about  giving  vent  to  his  buoyant  spuits.  And 


HOW  THE  PEOPLE  LIVED  221 

his  descendant  of  today  kas  not   lost  that 

propensity. 

The  folklore  of  the  old  dominion,  unlike  the  folk 
music,  was  extensive.   Some  of  it  came  with  the 
colonists  from  their  Norman  firesides,  but  more, 
perhaps,  was  the  outcome  of  a  supostitious 
popuhur  inuigination  working  in  the  new  and 
strange  environment  of  the  wilderness.  The  habi- 
tant had  a  profound  bdirf  in  the  supernatural, 
and  was  pnme  to  associate  miraculous  handiwork 
with  every  unusual  event.   He  peopled  the  earth 
and  the  air,  the  woods  and  the  rivuuis,  with  spirits 
<rf  divmt  tonaa  and  varied  motives.    The  red 
man's  abounding  suprartition,  likewise,  had  some 
influence  upcm  the  habitant's  highstnmg  tempera- 
moit.   At  any  rate.  New  France  was  full  of  legends 
and  weird  tales.   Every  island,  every  cove  in  the 
river,  had  one  or  more  associated  with  it.   Most  of 
these  legends  had  some  moral  lessons  attached  to 
them:  they  were  tales  of  disaster  which  came  from 
disobeying  the  teachings  of  the  Church  or  of  mira- 
culous escape  from  death  or  perdition  due  to  the 
supernatural  rewarding  of  righteousness.  Taken 
together,  they  make  up  a  wholesome  and  vigorous 
body  of  folklore,  reflecting  both  the  mystic  temper 
of  the  colony  and  the  relipous  fervor  ol  its  oommoa 


22«       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

life.  A  distinguished  son  of  French  Canada  has 
with  great  industry  gathered  these  legends  to- 
gether, a  service  for  which  posterity  will  be 
grateful.' 

Various  chroniclers  have  left  us  pen  portraitures 
of  thr  habitant  as  they  saw  him  in  the  oldoi  days. 
Charlevoix,  La  Hontan,  Hocquart,  and  Peter 
Kalm,  men  of  widely  di£Ferent  tastes  and  apti- 
tudes, all  bear  testimony  to  his  vigor,  stamina, 
and  native-bom  vivacity.  He  was  courteous  and 
polite  always,  yet  there  was  no  flavor  of  servility 
in  this  most  benjgn  trait  of  charaeter.  It  was 
bred  in  his  bone  and  was  fostaed  by  the  ♦i»«/»Ti{«g, 
of  his  church.    Akmg  with  this  went  a  bonhomie 
and  a  lightheartedness,  a  touch  of  personal  vanity, 
with  a  liking  for  display  and  ostentation,  which 
unhappily  did  not  make  for  thrift.    The  habitant 
"enjoys  what  he  has  got,"  writes  Charlevoix, 
"and  often  makes  a  display  of  what  he  has  not 
got.'*   He  was  also  fond  of  honors,  even  minor 
ones,  and  plumed  himself  on  the  slightest  recogni- 
tion from  o£Scial  circles.   Habitants  who  by  years 
of  hard  labor  had  saved  enough  to  buy  some  im- 
cleared  seigneury  strutted  about  with  the  airs 
of  genuine  aristocrats  while  their  wives,  in  the 
'  Sir  J.  M.  Lemaiat,  Ugmiiit  <i$  Ou  SL  Lamrtmet  (QaebM;  im^. 


HOW  THE  PFX)PLE  LIVED  228 
words  of  Governor  Denonville,  "essayed  to  play 
the  fine  lady.'*  More  than  one  intendant  was 
amused  by  this  broad  streak  ol  vanity  in  the 
colonial  character.  "Evay  one  h^"  wrote 
MeuUes,  "begins  by  calling  himself  an  esquire 
and  ends  by  thinking  himself  a  nobleman. " 

Yet  despite  this  attempt  to  keep  up  appear- 
ances, the  people  were  poor.   Oearing  the  land 
was  a  sbw  process,  and  the  cultivable  area  avail- 
able for  the  support  oi  each  household  was  small. 
Early  marriag  3  were  the  rule,  and  famih'es  of  a 
doKoi  or  more  chikboi  had  to  be  supported  from 
the  produce  of  a  few  arpenta.   To  maintain  such 
a  family  as  this  ev«y  one  had  to  work  hard  in  the 
growing  season,  and  even  the  women  went  to  the 
fields  in  the  harvest-time.    One  serious  short- 
coming of  the  habitant  was  his  lack  of  steadfast- 
ness in  labor.    There  was  a  roving  strain  in  his 
Norman  blood.    He  could  not  stay  long  at  any 
one  job;  there  was  a  restlessness  in  his  tempera- 
ment which  would  not  down.   He  would  leave 
his  fields  unploughed  in  order  to  go  hunting 
or  to  turn  a  few  sous  in  some  small  trading 
adventure.    Unstable  as  water,  he  did  not  excel 
in  tasks  that  required  patience.    But  he  could 
do  a  great  many  things  after  a  fadiion,  and  some 


924       CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

that  could  be  done  quickly  he  did  surprisingly 
well. 

One  racial  characteristic  which  drew  comment 
from  observers  of  the  day  was  the  litigious  dispo- 
sition of  the  people.  The  habitant  would  have 
made  lawsuits  his  chief  diversion  had  he  been 
permitted  to  do  so.  "If  this  propensity  be  not 
curbed,"  wrote  the  intendant  Baudot,  "there  will 
soon  be  more  lawsuits  in  this  country  than  there 
are  persons.'*  The  people  were  not  quarrelsome 
in  the  ordinary  sense,  but  they  were  very  jealoiu 
each  one  of  his  private  rights,  and  the  opportuni- 
ties for  litigation  oy&  such  mattors  semed  to 
provide  themselves  without  end.  Lands  were 
given  to  settlers  without  accurate  description  of 
their-  boundaries;  faons  were  unfenced  and 
cattle  wandered  into  neighbormg  fidds;  the 
notaries  themselves  were  a  most  il]iterate»  and 
as  a  result  scarcely  a  document  in  the 

colony  was  properly  drawn.  Nobody  lacked  pre- 
texts for  controversy.  Idleness  during  the  winter 
was  also  a  contributing  factor.  But  the  Church 
and  the  civil  authorities  frowned  upon  this 
habit  of  rushing  to  court  with  every  trivial 
complaint.  CurSs  and  seigneurs  did  what  they 
could  to  have  such  difficulties  settled  amicably 


HOW  THE  PEOPLE  LIVED 

at  home,  and  in  a  considerable  measure  they 
succeeded. 

New  France  was  bom  and  nurtured  in  an 
atmosphere  of  religious  devotion.    To  the  habi- 
tant the  Church  was  everything— his  school,  his 
counselor,   his   almsgiver,  his   newspaper,  his 
philosopher  of  things  present  and  of  things  to 
come.    To  him  it  was  the  source  of  all  knowledge, 
experience,  and  inspiration,  and  to  it  he  never  fal- 
tered in  ungrudging  loyalty.    The  Church  made 
the  colony  a  spiritual  unit  and  kept  it  so.  undefiied 
by  any  taint  of  here^.   It  furnished  the  one  atroog^ 
well-disciplined  organization  that  New  France 
possessed,  and  its  missionaries  blazed  the  way  for 
both  yeoman  and  trader  wherev«  th^  went. 

Many  traits  of  the  raoe  have  been  carried  on  to 
the  present  day  without  mbatantiai  change.  The 
habitant  ol  the  old  dommion  was  a  vduble  talker, 
a  teSkat  of  great  E^atka  about  his  own  feats  ol  skill 
and  oidurance,  his  hair-raising  escapes,  or  his 
astounding  jnowess  with  musket  and  fishing-line. 
Stories  grew  in  terms  of  prodigious  achievement  as 
they  passed  from  tongue  to  tongue,  and  the  scant 
regard  for  anythmg  approachmg  the  truth  m  these 
matters  became  a  national  eccentricity.  The 
habitant  was  boastful  m  aU  that  concerned  himself 


2M      CBUS4DEBS  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

(Hr  his  race;  never  did  a  people  fed  more  firmly 
assured  that  it  was  the  salt  of  the  earth.  He  was 
proud  of  his  ancestry,  and  proud  of  his  allegiance; 
and  so  are  his  descendants  of  today  even  though 
their  allegiance  has  changed. 

To  speak  of  the  habitants  of  New  France  as 
downtrodden  or  oppressed,  dispirited  or  despair- 
ing, like  the  peasantry  of  the  old  land  in  the  days 
before  the  great  Revolution,  as  some  historians 
have  done,  is  to  speak  untruthfully.  These  people 
were  neither  serfs  nor  peons.  The  habitant,  as 
Charlevoix  puts  it,  "breathed  from  his  birth  the  air 
of  liberty";  he  had  his  rights  and  he  maintained 
them.  Shut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  know- 
ing only  what  the  Church  and  civil  government 
allowed  him  to  know,  he  became  provincial  in  his 
horizon  and  conservative  in  his  habits  of  mind. 
The  paternal  policy  of  the  authorities  sapped  his 
initiative  and  left  him  little  scope  for  poscmal 
enterprise,  so  that  he  passed  for  being  a  dull  fellow. 
Yet  the  annals  of  forest  trade  and  Indian  d^lo- 
macy  prove  that  the  New  World  possessed  no 
sharps  wits  than  his.  Beneath  a  scmiewhat 
ungainly  exterior  the  yeoman  and  the  trader  of 
New  France  concealed  qualities  of  cunning,  tact, 
and  quick  judgment  to  a  surprising  degree. 


HOW  THE  PEOPLE  LIVED  227 
These  various  types  in  the  population  of  New- 
France,  officials,  missionaries,  seigneurs,  voyageurs, 
habitants,  were  all  the  scions  of  a  proud  race, 
admirably  fitted  to  form  the  rank  and  file  in  a 
great  crusade.  It  was  not  their  fault  that  France 
failed  to  dominate  the  Western  Heiiiu|»here. 


BIBUOGRAFHICAL  NOTE 


On  the  earlier  voyages  of  discovery  to  the  northeni 
coasts  of  the  New  World  the  most  informing  book  is 
H.  P.  Biggar's  Precursors  of  Jacques  CaHier  (Ottawa, 
Wll).  Hakluyt's  Voyages  contain  an  English  trans- 
mm  of  Cartier's  own  writings  which  cover  the  whole 
of  the  first  two  expeditions  and  a  portion  of  the  thbd. 
Champlain's  journals,  which  describe  in  detaU  hii  sea 
voyages  and  inUmd  trips  of  exploration  during  the  years 
1604-1618  inclusive,  were  translated  into  English  and 
published  by  the  Prince  Society  of  Boston  durimr  the 
years  1878-1882.  ^ 

For  further  discussions  of  these  eipkmitions  and  of  the 

various  other  topics  dealt  with  in  this  book  the  leeder 
may  be  referred  to  several  works  in  the  Chronides  qf 
Canada  (32  vols.  Toronto,  1914-1916),  namely,  to 
Stqphen  Leacock's  Daum  of  Canadian  History  and 
Mariner  qf  St.  ifofe/Charies  W.  Colby's  Founder  of  New 
France  and  The  Fighting  Oovemor;  Thomas  Chapais's 
Great  Intendant;  Thomas  G.  Marquis's  JesuU  Mittume; 
also  to  Seigneurs  of  Old  Canada  and  Coureurs-de-Bois 
by  the  author  of  the  present  volume.  In  each  of 
these  books,  moreover,  further  bibliographical  refer- 
ences corang  the  several  tc^Hcs  are  provided. 
Hie  series  known  as  Canada  and  lie  Pneinees  (22 


230  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

vols,  and  index.  Toronto,  1914)  contains  accurate  and 
readable  chapters  upon  every  phase  of  Canadian 
hiatoiy.  political,  miKtary,  social,  economic,  and  liter- 
ary. The  first  two  volumes  of  this  scrfea  deal  with  the 
French  regime.  Mention  should  also  be  made  of  the 
biographical  series  dealing  with  The  Makers  of  Canada 
(22  vols.  Toronto,  1905-1914)  and  especiaUy  to  the 
biographies  of  Champlain.  Laval,  and  Frontenac 
whidi  thw  series  includes  among  its  earlier  volumes. 

The  writings  of  Francis  Parkman,  noUbly  his 
Pwneera  of  New  France,  Old  RSgime  in  Canada,  JumU 
in  North  America,  La  Salle  and  the  Discovery  of  the  Gnat 
West,  and  Count  Frontenac  are  of  the  highest  interest 
and  value.  Although  given  to  the  world  nearly  two 
generations  ago.  these  volumes  still  hold  an  un- 
challenged supremacy  over  an  other  books  relaUng 
to  this  field  of  American  history. 

Other  works  which  may  he  oommended  to  leaders 
who  seek  pleasure  as  weU  as  instruction  from  books  of 
history  are  the  following:  • 

Pebe  F.-X.  Chablevodc,  Histoire  et  dSscripUon  gfni^ 
rale  de  la  NouveUe-Frame,  translated  by  John 
Gilmary  Shea  (6  vols.  N.  Y..  1866-1872). 

^  ^908)^^*  C'awwiian  Types  of  the  Old  RSgime  (N.  Y.. 

^  ^igicr^'  ^  ^^"^^  ^^^^  (Edinburgh. 

James  Douglas.  Old  France  in  the  New  World  rOeve- 
land,  1900).  ^ 

F.-X.  Garneaf.  Histoire  du  Canada  (5th  ed.  by  Hector 
^^ll^^^^y^rv^  ms.  As  yet  only  the  first  volume 
ot  this  edition  has  appeared.; 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  8S1 

P.  Kalm,  TtomU  inio  North  Ammea  (S  vola.  Loodoii, 

1772). 

Le  Baron  de  la  Hontan,  New  Voyages  to  North 
America  (ed.  E.  G.  Thwaites.  2  vols.  Chicago, 
1905). 

Mabc  Lescarbot,  Eistoire  d»  la  Nouodk-Frmce 
(translated  by  W.  L.  Grant.  3  vols.  Toronto,  1907- 
1914.    Publications  of  the  Champlain  Society). 

Fbederic  a.  Ogo,  The  Opening  of  the  Mieeiseippi 
(N.  Y.,  1904). 

A.  Sax/>nb,  La  eolonieaHon  de  la  NotueOe-Franee  (Paris» 

1905). 

G.  M.  Wrong,  A  Canadian  Manor  and  ite  Seignemn 

(Toronto,  1908). 
For  further  references  the  reader  should  consult,  in 
The  Encyclopadia  Briiannicat  the  articles  on  France, 
Camida,l4na»  XIV,  RidMmt,  Colbert,  nd  The  JeeuHe. 


INDEX 


iiins.  The.  act  u  suidM  to 
^^pldn.  41;  frieadly  to  the 

tiocMtCldaadof,  19. 2( 

.e  Isl      8,  19,  to 
Fr.    .t>ii,  68 

if  Jt  A  dtt  Jenit  musion- 
aiy,  56 

BrtHisge.  birth|»lM9e  of  Cluun- 
piaia.S8 

GBmlmi.  PeMseof  (I7«*9) 
Cftnada.  «m  New  Fri 

Cap  Bouge,  Cartier  at. 
W;  Roberval  winters 

Cartier,  Jacaues,  sets  ou 
voyage  of  discovery 
16;   a  conair.   16;  it 
voyages,   17;  readies  New 
Wortd.  18;  purpose  of  expedi- 
tKm.  19;  returns  home,  19; 
begins  second  voyage,  19-20; 
bis  ships,  20;  winters  at  Stada- 
oona,  21-23;  learns  of  Great 
Lakes,  22;  takes  Indians  to 
1  rni^,  23;  account  of  voyage. 
24;  sails  on  third  voyage  from 
St.  Malo  (1541),  25;  winters 
at  Cap  Rouge,  26;  defies  pa- 
tmn.  Hoberval,  97;  personal 
characterist!f«-  29;  later  life 
«9;  death  (1557),  29;  bibli- 
ography, 229 
Catalogue,  Gedion  de,  makes 
nrvtf  and  aaaiM  d  Quebec 


region  (..'«),  148-41: 
•Sriculir   1  census.  Ih4 
Cataraciui  i  Kingston),  fort  e»- 
taUished  at.  85-86;  La  SaUe 
receives  frrant     load  at,  UU 
Chaleur»,  Bu  e  de*.  18 
Champlain,  Sanad  <)e,  ban  at 
Brouage  {IMtm,  S8;  mils  with 
expeditun   of   De  Chaste* 
(1608),  SSi  petsooal  cfaaracter- 
"tics,  »-S4;  embarks  as  chief 
geographer  (1604).  So  vinters 
at  ht.  Croix,  86-37;  K  /rder  da 
Bon  Tempi,  38;  returns  to 
France.  8'>:  sails  again  for  the 
St  Lawrence  (1606),  SO;  laid 
against  the  Iro^ioii^  41;  neks 
western  panage  to  Ckthay, 
44,  safcet  journeys  into  in- 
tenor  (1618  and  1616),  44-47; 
journals,    47;    as  viceroy's 
deputy,    48;    surrenders  to 
English,   51-52;   returns  to 
Quebec  as  representative  <A 
Company  of  One  Hundred 
Associates,  52;  death  (1688). 
53;  appreciation  of.  88-84 
Champlaiii,  Lake,  41 
Chastee,  Amyar.  Seur  de.  S«. 
33,84 

(liauvin  <rf  Honfleur,  32 
Church  in  New  France,  loyalty 

to,     113;     Ballets,  115; 

Jesuits,  il6  et  ttq.;  aid  to  dvil 

power,  127-28;  revenues^  l£l^- 

130;  tee  also  Jesuits 
Colbert,  Jean  Baptiste, 

■ 


f84 


INDEX 


Colbert— Conftnuerf 
colonial  ventures,  8-9;  plans 
for  French  interest.  60-61; 
plans  fleet  of  nwRkaiit  wtli 
197-98 

Ck>urcel]e.  Duuel  de  B6iiiy,  Skm 
de,  GovetoOT  of  Neirnaoce. 
75 

Coureurs-de-bois,  attack  Indians 
(1687),  95-96;  kind  of  men 
engaged  as,  161-62;  number, 
162-63;  leaders,  163-64;  meth- 
ods of  trading,  165  et  seq.; 
licenses  granted  to,  172 

Crtvecoeur,  Fwrt,  10^  107 

D'Ailleboust.  Governor  ot  New 
n«nce,  55 

Denonville,  Marquis  de.  Gov- 
ernor of  New  France,  94 

Donnacona,  head  of  Indian  vil- 
lage, 23 

Duchesneau,  Jacques,  Intendant 
<rf  New  France,  88;  quarnls 
with  Frontenac^  89-01:  re- 
called, 91 

Da  Lhut.  Danid  GnymAm,  87. 
05, 181 

Pmnrmn,  Bfaonne^  78 

Education  in  New  IVuio&  180- 
1S2 

England,  early  explorations,  15, 
16;  colonial  ventuiei^  40 

Five  natiooa,  q)pdIatioii  of  the 
Iroquois  Indians,  40 

Stance  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, population,  1, 3;  army,  1; 
power  and  prestige,  2-4;  out- 
stripped in  commerce,  3;  racial 

aualities.  3-4 ;  government,  4-5 ; 
aurch,  5;  tardiness  in  Ameri- 
can colonization,  6-8;  weak- 
new  «rf  colonial  policgr,  10-14 
Wto^tme,  Lodfl  de  Buade. 
Count,  dioaen  to  carry  out 
opkmial  pdicy,  9;  sent  as 
Governor  to  QueiMc  (1072), 


80;  earl^  life,  80;  penooal 
characteristics.  81-82;  inaa> 
juration,  83;  plans  checked  fay 
*Sag,  80-84;  expansion  policy, 
84  et  teq.;  builds  fort  at  Ca- 
taraqui,  86;  opposed  by  Bishop 
and  Intendant,  89-91;  recalled 
(1682),  91;  returns  to  Quebec 
as  Governor  (1680).  07-08; 
death  (1698),  98 
Frontenac,  Fort,  85-86,  108,  108 
Fur  trade  with  the  In^m^  155 
tlaeq. 

Galilean  l»anch  of  the  Catholic 

Church,  5,  114 
Gasp6  Bay,  18 

Georgian     Bay,  Chanqihin's 

journey  to,  46-47 
Giffard,  Robert,  148 
Green  B^,  168 

6ri^  The,        104-105, 100 


HaUtanta.  147-51,  207-26 
Haklujrt,  account  of  meeting  of 

Cartier  and  Roberval,  27 
Hubert,  Louis,  137 
Hennepin,  Louis,  Becollet  friar. 

104 

Bochehiga  (Montreal),  81-88, 
26,84 

Huguenots  excluded  from  Can- 
ada. 185-80 
Hunms,  The,  act  as  guides  to 
Champlain,  41;  friendly  to  the 
French,  45-46;  destroyed  by 
the  Iroquois,  55-56;  Jesuits 
among.  118-19 
Hurona,  Lake  (rf  the,  M»  Georgian 

Illinois  River,  La  Salle  readhet. 
106,100 

Indians,  hostility  toward  Cartier. 
86;  fur  trade  with,  156  a  teq.; 
effect  of  irade  upon,  178;  tee 
alto  Algonquins,  HuroMk  Iro- 
quois, Onondagu 
IrandeqaoitBigr.  108 


INDEX 


8U 


JboqiKHs.  The,  Champlain'a  en- 
cwmtw  with,  41-43;  friends 
of  English,  enemies  of  French, 
42-43;  troubles  with,  M-68. 

Jesuit  RdaHmu,  54,  IIIHM),  132 
Jesuits,  The,  wttle  Montreal. 
W-M;  Ofmoee  FVmtenac,  88; 
come  to  Cutwb  (l«2fi),  115- 
16;  chartctoistics,  116,  117- 
18;  missionaries  to  Indians, 
118  et  aeq.;  progress  among 
French  settlers,  122  et  seq.;  ser- 
vice  to  trade  interests,  156-58 
iohet.  Loom,  109,  IM 

185-86,188 
Kirke.  Stt  David,  Conunander  of 
J»waA  pnvateen,  51 

I*  Bane,  Le  Febvi«  de,  Gov- 
^or  of  New  Raaee,  M-M, 

U  DuranUy^  OKviir  Hani  de, 

95,  164 

La  For«t.  Franstw  DMndnne  de. 
87.95,  163  ---HH-i—w, 

Lalemant,  Jesuit  nMaoary,  56 

UJtMam^MSamB,  Antobe  de 
87, 168 

La  Roche,  Sieur  de.  32 

La  Salle,  Ren^-Robert  Cavelier, 
Skut   de^   foremost  among 
French  pathfinders,  87;  bom 
(1643),  100;  comes  to  Montreal 
(1666),  100-01;  equips  eipedi- 
tm  (1660),  102;  leceiveiitaiid. 
mg  n^ti  and  land  at  Fort 
Aontenac,  103;  goes  to  France 
for  further  aid,  103-04;  first 
journey  down  the  Illinois,  105- 
107;  returns  to  Montreal,  107; 
readies  the  Mississippi,  107; 
winters  at  Fort  Miiuni,  106; 
journeys  down  the  Mississippi. 
108-00;  plans  for  founding 
flokoy  m  lower  Mivis^ 
mlqr  (168^  108-10;  dei& 


(1687),  110;  1 
111-12 

Lauzon.  Jean  de.  Gorecnor  of 

New  France.  57 
Laval,  Pransois-Xavier  de.  Abb« 
de  Montigny.  Bishop  of  Que- 
bec, arrives  in  New  France 
(1659),  58;  friction  with  civil 
authorities,  58-59;  relatione 
with  M^zy,  72-73;  returns  to 
colony,  88;  opposed  to  Fraote- 
nac,  89  et  seq.;  bom  (1622),  184; 
personal  chanwteristidb  185- 
23;  oppoeed  to  liquor  traffic. 
126-27 
Law.  John,  67 

Le  Caron,  Josef^  BteoUet,  ml*. 
slonary,46 

L«  Moyne,  Jesuit  misamiaiy,  57 

Lescarbot,  Marc,  38 

Liquor  traffic  with  the  Tn.i8»«>., 
126-27,  173-78 

Lonpwuil,  Baron  de,  142 

Louis  XIV,  centnlisaUon  of 
power  under.  4-5;  interest  m 
colonial  ventures,  9;  assumes 
power  (1658),  60;  edict  of 
1663,  62-63;  personal  ii 
in  New  France,  70-71 

Maisonneuve,  Paul  de 
dey,  Sieur  de,  54-58 
Manceb  Jeaime,  55 

Aurquetts,  jMquesk  Jeeoit 
nmiaiy,  103 

Matagoida  Bay,  110 

A'uuin.  Jules,  not  -'-trrnrtBih 

cdonial  ventures,  8 
Meules,    Intendaai   of  Neir 

France,  93 
M^^.  de.  Governor  of  Nmt 

France,  72-74 
Miami,  Fort.  108 
MichilimaddiiaG^  105^  188 
Min|Mi  Uuidsb  80 
Mississippi    Rive^  !« 

reaches,  108 
Montmagny,  Charles 

Huault.  Skur  dib  64k  88 


236 


INDEX 


Montreal,  wttled,  54^;  annual 

fur  fair  at,  108-71;  «w  dto 

Hochelaga 
lionta,  Pierre  du  Guast,  Sieur 

de>  granted  trade  monopoly. 

85;  organizes  company,  S5-S9; 

loMs  infioeBos  at  oonrt»  48 


New  France,  reflects  old  Fhmce^ 
10^  14:  difficulty  of  oommuni- 
eation  with  Europe,  IS-IS; 
populatwn  (1663),  61-62; 
colonial  intendant,  67-69;  ad- 
ministration, 69-70;  requests 
for  money,  71-72;  period  of 
prosperity,  78,  79;  seigneurial 
system  of  land  tenure,  133 
e(  »eq.;  militarv  seigpoeuries, 
145-46;  forced  labor  in,  150; 
menymaking  in,  151;  courts. 
151^;  fur  trade,  155  H  aeq.; 
conqtetition  with  En^ish  in 
trade,  159-41;  liquor  traffic, 
17S-78;  effect  of  trade  upon, 
178-79;  agriculture,  180  et 
M^.;  industries,  188  et  aeq.; 
nunerals,  190-92;  exclusion  of 
Huguenots  from,  195-96;  trade . 
oonditiona,  196-201;  aodal  or- 
fluiaatkm,  208  el  aeq.;  aeign- 
mn,  208-07;  hi»iM  of  habit- 
ants, 207-11;  dothing,  211-13; 
food,  213-17;  use  of  tobacco, 
217;  festivities,  217-21;  folk- 
lore, 221-22;  poverty  (rf  habit- 
ants, 223;  litigious  diqxMition 
of  people,  224-25;  religion, 
825;  characteristics  of  pei^le, 
225-26;  types  of  popdation. 
187:  lHUio0M>hy,  229-81 

New  Vnxkot,  Con^Mtny  of,  tee 
One  Hundred 
G>mpanv  of 

Newfoundland,  Cartiir'a 
tions  rests  at,  18 

Niagara,  fort  rebuilt  by  Denon- 
viUe.  96;  U  Salle  builds  post 
•L104 


CHd  Couodl.  55 

One  Hundred  Associates.  Com- 
pany of,  organization,  50; 
powers  and  duties,  50-51; 
sends  fleet  to  the  St.  Lawrence 
(1628),  51 ;  sends  ChampUun  as 
representative,  52-53;  charter 
revoked,  61;  failure  of,  88: 
^nts  by,  137-88;  lertriets 
uidustry.  196 

Qnondagas,  The^  ChaoqiiaiB's 
attack  upon,  46 

Ontario,  Lake,  46 

OtUwa  Rivert  44 

Perrot,  Nicholas,  95, 168 
Pontgrave  of  St.  Mdo,  82,  89 
Port  Uoval  (Annapolis).  36,  37 
Portugal,  early  explorations,  15, 

16;  colonial  ventures,  49 
Poutrincooft^  Keaooort  de.  85, 

36,88 

Quebec  Champlain  settles,  39- 
40;  population,  48;  surrenders 
to  English,  bi-oi;  bums,  93; 
pivot  of  social  Itfe,  204-05; 


lUcoIlets,  The,  115 

Richelieu,  f'-*"*'"*',  interest  in 
cdonial  ventures  under,  7-8; 
becomes  diief  minister  of  Louis 
Xin,  49;  prevails  upon  King 
to  organize  colonismg  oom- 

Kmy  (1627),  50;  interest  b 
ew  France  not  lailbfr  W 
Richelieu  River,  41 
Roberval,  Jean  Fhmgois  de  la 
Roque,  Sieur  dc^  enlists  sarv- 
ices  of  Cartier,  fS-«8,  meets 
Cartier  retumin';  >o  Flrance. 
27;  winters  a'^:  >  '..y  iouge,  M 
Reo«B,birt^>la>  <  ij  .^Sdkl«! 

Sable  Island,  82 
Sagusnay  B^ver,  84 
8t.Cka^S8-fl7 


INDEX 


St  Jdin'i,  Newfoundland.  S7 
St.  Lawrence,  Gulf  of,  18 
St.  Louis.  Fort.  109 
St.  MahM6-17,  19.  £5,  » 
i»t.  Maurice,  28 

Seiipieun  of  New  FtmoBB,  188 
<f«a^..  808-07 

Sovereign  Council.  68-06 
Spain,  early  ezpIorationB,  15. 16; 
^  colonial  ventures.  49 
Stadacona  (Lower  Quebec).  81. 
26,  39  /.  . 

Sully,  Due  de,  oi^KMed  to  oolo. 

nul  ventures.  7 
Sulpidans,  The,  lOff,  188 
Superior  Coanca,  aw  Sovereign 

Council 


New  Fmux  (lOJf),  88;  m* 
nves  in  Quebec.  06-67,  68,  78 
rqiort  to  the  Emg,  80-81 
fosten    industries,  188-80: 
plans  trwie  with  West  IndiM 
and  France,  197-98 

Tbmt  Rivers.  28,  8S 

Tioonderoga,     fight  between 
trench  and  Indiam  at,  41 

Tocquw^  de.  ¥naA  hl^^mUf, 

Tonty.  Horn  de,  87.  95.  104. 168 
Tracy,  FkouviUe  de,  74-78 


Vi 


ifrnau  tells  Champlainflf 
lish  shipwreck,  44-45 


West  Indies,  CaouiaBy  of 


